Mandela: 'My father is critical, anything is imminent' - daughter

Nelson Mandela's daughter has told a South African Radio - SAFM that: "I can reiterate that Tata (father) is very critical, that anything is imminent, but I want to emphasise again that it is only God who knows when the time to go is."

Mandela has been in hospital for 20 days since June 8 for a lung infection - his fourth hospitalisation in six months.

His condition deteriorated further in hospital and a report says he is on a life support machine, forcing President Jacob Zuma to cancel a trip to neighbouring Mozambique. Zuma was due to attend a summit in Maputo of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss regional infrastructure, but pulled out after visiting the former president in hospital last night.

Mandela, South Africa's first black president, became an international figure while enduring 27 years in prison for fighting against apartheid, the country's system of racial segregation. He was elected the nation's first black president in 1994, four years after he was freed. He is respected for the way he preached reconciliation after the 1994 transition to multiracial democracy. He stepped down in 1999 after one five-year term in office.

Since then he has played little role in public life, dividing his time in retirement between his home in the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Houghton and Qunu, the village in the impoverished Eastern Cape province where he was born.

Mandela turns 95 in July.