Makgatho Mandela, son of Nobel prize winner and former South African president Nelson Mandela, has died of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

He died in a Johannesburg hospital. He was Nelson Mandela's only surviving son from his first marriage.

Makgatho Mandela was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital in December last year.

Though hospital officials refused to give the cause of the death, Nelson Mandela announced that his son died of AIDS.

Nelson Mandela, who has been in the forefront of the country's campaign against AIDS, said there is a need to create more awareness about the disease so that people shed the taboo attached with it.