MANDELA 'RESPONDING TO TREATMENT.

Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela is responding to treatment in hospital, the South African president has said.

Jacob Zuma told parliament on Wednesday that he was happy with the progress being made by the 94-year-old former president after a "difficult few days".

Mandela was admitted to the hospital on Saturday with a recurring lung infection.

It is his fourth hospital stay since December, and there is a growing realisation among South Africa's 53 million people that they will one day have to say goodbye to the father of the "Rainbow Nation" that Mandela tried to forge from the apartheid-era.