{"id":5959,"date":"2013-06-24T09:25:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T09:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=5959"},"modified":"2013-06-24T09:26:14","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T09:26:14","slug":"media-crowd-growing-at-mandelas-pretoria-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=5959","title":{"rendered":"Media crowd growing at Mandela’s Pretoria hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Journalists<\/a>
Journalists waiting for news during a previous Mandela hospitalisation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The number of journalists outside the Pretoria hospital where former president Nelson Mandela is in a critical condition increased significantly on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Reporters’ vehicles, including more than 10 broadcast vans, took up almost all the parking spots adjoining the Medi-Clinic Heart hospital.<\/p>\n

Several police officers were manning the entrances to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Before 6am, three police officers stood at the hospital’s entrance along the busy Park Street.<\/p>\n

The officers searched cars entering the hospital premises. More officers were inside the facility.<\/p>\n

The hospital’s other entrance along Celliers Street was opened before 6am. Police officers and hospital security searched all vehicles, including delivery vans.<\/p>\n

Well-wishes adorned the hospital’s security wall with get-well cards, balloons, flowers, and paintings.<\/p>\n

Some of the messages pasted onto the wall read: “Descendants of [former Ghana leader] Kwame Nkrumah wish u long life. Bernard [from] Ghana”.<\/p>\n

Another message imprinted on an Ethiopian flag read: “We love you our father, Tata Madiba”.<\/p>\n

A colourful card from a Montessori pre-school was decorated with tiny children’s palm prints and numerous pictures of Madiba holding the Fifa World Cup trophy.<\/p>\n

Some passers-by, rushing to work on Monday morning, momentarily glanced at the huge artistic display.<\/p>\n

Several news crews converged on the hospital on Sunday night after the presidency announced that Mandela’s condition had deteriorated. Most of them had left by 3am on Monday.<\/p>\n

However, more than 20 vehicles, including the broadcast vans for local and international media, occupied the parking along Celliers Street on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

A few reporters braved the biting early morning cold to chat near the hospital’s Park Street entrance. Some of them held cameras.<\/p>\n

It was a quiet night outside Mandela’s home in Johannesburg with almost no movement on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Shortly after 2am, a silver Jeep arrived at the house. The driver pulled up outside the black gates, flashed the vehicle’s headlights and, when there was no response, hooted twice. The gates opened.<\/p>\n

Two broadcasting teams arrived at the house on Sunday night, but left a short while later.<\/p>\n

The street was otherwise quiet, with only the occasional armed response patrol.<\/p>\n

After 6am the streets became busier as people started their daily routines. A black VW Polo parked outside the gate of the house and a woman entered.<\/p>\n

On Sunday evening presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement: “The condition of former president Nelson Mandela, who is still in hospital in Pretoria, has become critical.”<\/p>\n

It was issued after a visit by President Jacob Zuma and African National Congress deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

“They were briefed by the medical team who informed them that the former president’s condition had become critical over the past 24-hours,” said Maharaj.<\/p>\n

Zuma and Ramaphosa also met Mandela’s wife Graca Machel to discuss his condition.<\/p>\n

“The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands,” Zuma said in the statement.<\/p>\n

He appealed to South Africans to continue praying for Mandela and his medical team.<\/p>\n

Mandela, 94, was admitted to hospital on June 8 for treatment of a recurring lung infection. – Sapa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of journalists outside the Pretoria hospital where former president Nelson Mandela is in a critical condition increased significantly on Monday morning. Reporters’ vehicles, including more than 10 broadcast vans, took up almost all the parking spots adjoining the Medi-Clinic Heart hospital. Several police officers were manning the entrances to the hospital. Before 6am, … Continue reading “Media crowd growing at Mandela’s Pretoria hospital”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[3412,1381,327,3032,1446,139],"class_list":["post-5959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-south-africa","tag-critical-condition","tag-hospital","tag-mandela","tag-medi-clinic-heart-hospital","tag-media","tag-pretoria"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/mandela_journalists.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5963,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5959\/revisions\/5963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}