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

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 ordered 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”.

Zuma’s office said the 72-year-old leader checked into hospital on Saturday for “tests” adding doctors were “satisfied” with his 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 on Friday complained of “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.