S.Africa’s Zuma expected to leave hospital Sunday: ANC

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is expected to be discharged from hospital on Sunday, a day after he was admitted for tests following a bout of exhaustion, an ANC official said.

“Our information was he was going to be out of that (hospital) yesterday late or today,” Gwede Mantashe, general secretary of the ruling ANC told reporters.

“So we are expecting him out today.”

He said party officials had asked Zuma on Friday to take a break because “the punishing election programme was taking its toll, not on him only, (but) on many of us”.

“Taking the advantage of having been given that time off, the president went for routine health check in hospital yesterday,” said Mantashe.

Zuma’s office said doctors were “satisfied” with the 72-year-old leader’s condition.

Mantashe said he had no details of the tests that Zuma took, but a local Sunday paper, City Press cited an ANC party official saying Zuma had complained on Friday that he was suffering from “pain in the neck”.

The presidency on Friday said Zuma would take “a few days off from public engagements”.

“We are expecting him to rest more,” said Mantashe, without giving full details.

Zuma’s next scheduled public appearance is on June 19 when he is due to deliver the state of the nation address in parliament.

He was sworn in for a fresh term two weeks ago after his African National Congress (ANC) party won the May 7 elections with an overwhelming 62 percent of the vote.

An small opposition party the National Freedom Party, wished Zuma “speedy recuperation”.

“We know that it is not a major ailment,” the party’s leader Zanele Magwaza-Msibi said in a statement.

Zuma’s spokesman Mac Maharaj did not respond to phone calls on Sunday.