Giant Mandela portrait unveiled in Cape Town

25 Jun, 2013

A giant portrait in honour of Nelson Mandela has appeared over the 11-storey Civic Centre in Cape Town, as the condition of the former South African president is described as "critical".

The 42m-high and 17m-wide work of art will be presented officially on 30 June as part of the year-long initiative “Cape Town Honours Nelson Mandela” to mark his enduring legacy as an anti-apartheid activist and the nation's first black president.

South Africans continue to hold vigils for the 94-year-old Mandela who remains in hospital in Pretoria where he was taken on 8 June with a lung infection.

The country's president Jacob Zuma says that doctors are doing everything possible to ensure that Mandela is "comfortable", while Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town has offered South Africa a prayer in which he wishes Mandela a "peaceful, perfect, end".