Nelson Mandela will soon be discharged from hospital to recuperate at home, according to former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

‘I am quite certain that one of these days Madiba (Mandela) will go back home,’ he said at the weekend.

Official statements that South Africa’s first  black president was critical but stable were correct, he said, at a memorial service in Pretoria on Saturday.

Mandela’s wife Graça Machel also said she was ‘less anxious’ about his condition.

‘He continues to respond positively to treatment. I would say that today I am less anxious than I was a week ago,’ she said.

The former apartheid campaigner has been hospitalised for more than five weeks for a recurring lung infection, which has led to four hospital stays in the last six months.

Mandela, who was hospitalized on June 8, turns 95 on Thursday.

Last week, a close friend of Mandela contradicted the court reports that he was ‘totally conscious’ when he visited him in hospital this week.