Nelson Mandela ambulance broke down on the way to hospital

Nelson Mandela enjoying his 89th birthday celebrations at the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund in Johannesburg. Photograph: Denis Farrell/AP

The emergency ambulance carrying Nelson Mandela to hospital two weeks ago broke down; says South African presidential spokesman. Mac Maharaj confirmed that the vehicle had engine trouble and  the former president was tranferred to another ambulance. But he said there was no threat to Mr Mandela as he was surrounded by intensive  care nurses  the whole time. 

American network CBS quotes sources as saying he had to wait for 40minutes. The CBS report says the transfer to another ambulance took place in freezing winter temperatures. 

Mr Mandela, 94, was being transported from Johannesburg to hospital in Pretoria in the early hours of 8 June.  He was admitted in a serious condition with a recurrence of longstanding lung problems and has been in intensive care since. It is his third stay in in hospital this year. 

There has been little infornation about his condition for some days. President Jacob Zuma said on 13 June that his health continued to improve but his condition remained serious. 

More recently, one of Mr Mandela's grandsons, Ndaba Mandela, said his granfather was getting better and he hoped he would be home soon. 

Mr Maharaj confirmed the ambulance breakdown in an interview with local TV station. ENCA.

"I appreciate the concern caused by this " he said. " I want to assure the public that all care was taken to ensure that former President Nelson Mandela's medical condition was not compromised by this incident"

Mr Maharaj said Mr Mandla was in a convoy with a full complenent of medical staff and no-one could have predicted the engine problem. "it happens in life." he said.

The presidential spokesman dismissed speculation surrounding Mr Mandela's medical conditon calling for things to be done "in a dignified way" and urging the media to rely on updated from the presidential office.

Mandela was jailed for 27 years for his role in the fight against apartheid and is believed to have suffered damage to his lungs while working in a prison quarry. 

After leading the struggle against white minority rule under the apartheid system, Mr Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994. He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while being held in prison on the windswept Robben Island.

In his autobiography Nelson Mandela declared that:

"I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born free. Free in every way that I could know. Free to run in the fields near my mother's hut, free to swim in the clear stream that ran through my village, free to roast mealies [corn] under the stars … It was only when I learnt that my boyhood freedom was an illusion … that I began to hunger for it.

It is everyone's wish that the former president of South Africa is free from this illness and returns home.