Former South African President Nelson Mandela (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African media say a publisher withdrew a book that documents Nelson Mandela’s medical treatments following complaints that the book violates doctor-patient confidentiality.
Nkosi Mandela, a grandson of the late anti-apartheid leader, president and Nobel laureate, said Monday that the removal from stores of “Mandela’s Last Years” showed respect for the family’s wishes “to guard the sanctity of his last moments.”
A South African news outlet, eNCA, says Mandela’s foundation also welcomed the decision by publisher Penguin Random House.
The book was written by retired military doctor Vejay Ramlakan, who treated the ailing statesman and says Mandela’s family requested that the book be written. Ramlakan has not named the family members he says authorized the book.
Mandela suffered a lung infection and other ailments before he died in 2013 at age 95.
