Former first lady‚ Graça Machel‚ wants to sue a doctor who treated her late husband‚ former South African president Nelson Mandela‚ over explosive claims in a book published this week. Lieutenant-general Vejay Ramlakan‚ who was Madiba’s doctor for nearly a decade and the former surgeon general of the South African National Defence Force‚ published the book, Mandela’s Last Years (Penguin Random House), on Monday. Among the claims Ramlakan makes are that it was Winnie Madikizela-Mandela‚ and not Machel‚ who was at Mandela’s bedside when he died. It also details never-before-published information on Madiba’s various health conditions‚ including that doctors were worried the former statesman "might have died" when he stopped breathing on a chilly night in June‚ seven months before his December 2013 death. Internal family politics also negatively affected Mandela’s heath in his final few months‚ Ramlakan claims. He said he was privileged that the family gave him their blessing in publish...
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