Yes, Nelson Mandela Has Been Discharged From Hospital But Still Unstable

South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela was discharged on Sunday after nearly three months in the hospital and returned to his Johannesburg home, where officials said he would continue to receive intensive medical care for "various illnesses."

"Madiba's condition remains critical and is at times unstable," President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement, using the clan name for Mr. Mandela by which he is affectionately known here. "His home has been reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there."

Mr. Mandela was admitted to a private hospital in Pretoria on June 8 to treat a lung infection, one of many he has battled since contracting tuberculosis during his nearly three decades in prison for opposing South Africa's white-minority regime.

It was his fourth hospitalization since a three-week stay in December and the longest by far.

The length and intensity of his treatment obliged South Africans and Mr. Mandela's admirers world-wide to come to terms with the mortality of a man revered as a living symbol of peace and racial reconciliation. Thousands of people visited the gates of the Pretoria hospital where he was treated, leaving cards and holding prayer vigils.

Mr. Mandela was elected South Africa's first black president in 1994, and served one five-year term as president before retiring from public life several years later. His health deteriorated in recent years, and he made one of his last public appearances at the final match of the soccer World Cup here in 2010.

"We now call on all to allow the former president and his family the necessary private space so that his continuing care can proceed with dignity and without unnecessary intrusion," the government's statement said.