Lekota out of danger
Article By Sheena Adams
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota is out of danger after suffering a heart attack late on Wednesday night.
Lekota was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Gatesville Medical Centre in the early hours of Thursday morning after suffering a "mild heart attack", according to a hospital source.
However, he is out of danger and "doing okay", according to an aide.
Lekotas heart attack followed a particularly heated debate in the National Assembly on Wednesday with Democratic Alliance MP Rafeek Shah.
| His condition was life-threatening when he was admitted |
Shah had charged that some South Africa National Defence Force peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo lacked showers and fresh drinking water and that hygiene in some areas was "deplorable".
An outraged Lekota shouted down the allegations, saying they "had no foundation whatsoever".
The hospital source said doctors performed an angiogram, an x-ray of the heart, immediately after Lekotas admission and determined that he had suffered a myocardial infarction, normally caused by a blood clot in a coronary artery.
The minister was well enough to receive visitors on Thursday afternoon, with President Thabo Mbeki flying back from an official launch of the Salt telescope at Sutherland to see him.
Lekota, 57, is also the national chairman of the ANC.
The ministers deputy, Mluleki George, told the Cape Times on Thursday that doctors had managed to stabilise Lekota by mid-morning.
It was believed his condition was life-threatening when he was admitted.
Shah said he wished Lekota "a full and speedy recovery".
|
