( CNN ) -- Thabo Mbeki , who succeeded Nelson Mandela as South Africa 's president 14 years ago , says the ailing revered statesmen will pull through . `` I know the doctors who are working with him are very good people , very good doctors and I am quite certain , I am quite certain that , one of these days , Madiba will go back home , '' Mbeki said over the weekend , calling Mandela by his clan name . Mandela , 94 , is considered the founding father of South Africa 's modern democracy . He has been hospitalized in Pretoria since June 8 for a recurring lung infection -- a legacy of his years of imprisonment under South Africa 's now-defunct apartheid regime . Mbeki is the second president in South Africa 's post-apartheid era ushered in by Mandela . Mbeki served from 1999 to 2008 after Mandela emerged from prison in 1990 and became the nation 's first black president four years later . Jacob Zuma currently serves as president . `` What the government has been saying is that his condition is critical but stable is correct . But I think we need to add to that that indeed his health is improving . The medical care that he is receiving is in fact excellent and as I say , I am quite certain that one of these days the doctors will agree that he can go and stay at home rather than in hospital . Certainly that is our hope and our wish , but I think that is what will happen , '' Mbeki said . Mandela became an international figure while enduring 27 years in prison for fighting against apartheid , the South Africa 's system of racial segregation . A court document released recently revealed that Mandela 's health had declined so sharply on June 26 that his family was considering whether to take him off life support . The next day , however , Zuma announced that Mandela 's condition improved from critical to critical but stable .
Thabo also says that Mandela 's ` ` health is improving '' Mbeki wants him as president ; he says ` ` Madiba will go back home ''