South Africans pray all night as Mandela's condition improves

South Africans have been holding an all-night prayer vigil for anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, outside his former home in Soweto.

They have been singing and praying for the former president’s health, who is suffering from lung infection and is now on his 20th day in the hospital, reported BBC.

More updates on Nelson Mandela

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Mandela's condition has improved though he remained critical and on life support as South African President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. He cancelled his trip to Mozambique to see the anti-apartheid icon.

Mandela's eldest daughter Makaziwe, however, warned that her father was "very critical" and "anything is imminent".

As the eyes of the world remain fixed on the health condition of the 94-year-old peace hero, Zuma said Mandela's medical team told him that the former president "remains critical but is now stable."

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Mandela's "condition has improved during the course of the night," Zuma said in a statement after visiting him for a second time in 24 hours in the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria. He also urged people to refrain from spreading rumours about the democracy icon's medical condition.

Earlier, Makaziwe said her father was opening his eyes and still reactive to touch.

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"I re-iterate that Tata (father) is very critical that anything is imminent," Makaziwe said as the Mandela family gathered at the hospital to visit the peace icon, who has been admitted since June 8.

"But I want to emphasise again that it's only God who knows when the time to go is and so we will wait with him, with Tata, as long for us as a family, he's still giving us hope opening his eyes he's still reactive to touch we will live with that hope until the final end comes," she said.

Mandela, respected across the globe as a symbol of resistance against injustice, had a long history of lung problems, dating back to the time when he was a political prisoner on Robben Island during apartheid. While in jail he contracted tuberculosis.

Mandela is revered for leading the fight against white minority rule in the African country and then preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years.

Mandela, regarded the founding father of South Africa's multiracial democracy, served as the country's first black president from 1994 to 1999. He left power after five years as president.

Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He retired from public life in 2004 and has not been seen in public since the football World Cup finals in 2010. Mandela turns 95 on July 18.