Nelson Mandela is Just There! Daughter Speaks and Open-up

Nelson Mandela's daughter has hit out at "racists" and "vultures" in the media, as the presidency says the anti-apartheid icon has improved overnight.

After visiting him in his Pretoria hospital, Makaziwe Mandela said her father - who is reportedly no longer able to breathe unassisted - is still "very critical".

"Anything is imminent, but I want to emphasise again that it is only God who knows when the time to go is," she told the public broadcaster SABC.

"I won't lie, it doesn't look good. But as I say, if we speak to him, he responds and tries to open his eyes.

"He's still there. He might be waning off, but he's still there."

She also criticised the "crass" media frenzy, likening the media to vultures.

"It's like truly vultures waiting when a lion has devoured a buffalo, waiting there you know for the last carcasses, that's the image that we have as a family," she said.

"And we don't mind the interest but I just think that it has gone overboard."

She also accused the foreign media of "a racist element" by crossing cultural boundaries.

"They violate all boundaries," she said.

"Is it because we're an African country that people just feel they can't respect any laws of this country, they can violate everything in the book? I just think it's in bad taste, it's crass."
Mandela pictures are hung up at a mass prayer meeting at a Cape Town school
Her comments come as South African President Jacob Zuma also visited Mr Mandela, saying the ailing former leader remained critical but stable.

"He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night. The medical team continues to do a sterling job," Mr Zuma said in a statement.

The President abruptly cancelled a trip to Mozambique after making a late night visit to the revered former leader.

It is the first time Mr Zuma has scrapped a public engagement since Mr Mandela entered hospital on June 8.

South Africans have been praying, singing and dancing outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital, where the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader was taken with a recurring lung infection.