President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday night cancelled a visit to Mozambique as Nelson Mandela’s condition deteriorated in the past 48 hours.

Zuma was supposed to attend a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Investment Summit in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.

Zuma took the decision to cancel the trip to Mozambique soon after he met with the doctors that are looking after him.

Today is the 20th day since Mandela was admitted to a Pretoria hospital for a recurring lung infection.

This suggests that Mandela’s prognosis is not good at all. South Africa’s eNCA, a 24-hour news TV network, this morning ran interviews with one of Mandela’s earlybodyguards.

They also ran an interview with the owner of a children’s home Mandela once visited.

Earlier this week, Mandela’s family listened attentivelyas the archbishop of Cape Town prayed requesting thatthe former South African president be granted a “peaceful, perfect end.”

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba paid the anti-apartheidfighter a visit as he approached the 19th day in the Pretoria hospital.

It is understood that Mandela slipped into a critical condition at the weekend, forcing relatives and family to meet at his home on Tuesday in Qunu, Eastern Cape province, to talk about critical family issues.

On Wednesday a number of chiefs where seen entering Mandela’s homestead in Qunu as a sign of paying respects to the great leader. Zuma, addressing the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) conference in Boksburg on Wednesday, said Mandela was in critical condition and called on Mandela’s admirers to pray for the iconic leader.