The former apartheid South Africa president, FW de Klerk, has been admitted to hospital following a heart problem, eTV News reported on Tuesday.

This emerges at a time when another former president, Nelson Mandela, has been in hospital for more than 22 days after suffering a recurring lung infection.

Mandela replaced de Klerk as the president of the new South Africa after the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.

On Tuesday morning, eTV News reported that De Klerk was due for a heart operation sometime this week.

De Klerk and his wife Elita on Saturday cancelled their business trip and vacation in Europe in view of “Mandela’s medical condition.”

“Their thoughts are with the Mandela family during this difficult time and they join in their prayers for an improvement in Mr Mandela’s health,” FW de Klerk Foundation said at the weekend.

In 1993, Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Mandela and FW de Klerk in appreciation of their toil to bring about the peaceful change in South Africa from the apartheid era to non-racial democracy.

At the time, the Nobel Committee said de Klerk and Mandela, almost generally known as the last white President and the first black President of South Africa respectfully, had demonstrated “personal integrity and great political courage” in identifying a middle ground in the severely divided politics of South Africa.