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Publisher withdraws book on Mandela health after complaints

Publisher withdraws book on Mandela health after complaints | iNFOnews.ca
FILE -- In this Jan. 31, 2006 file photo former South African President Nelson Mandela smiles during his meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. Some relatives of Mandela say a new book by a military doctor that documents Mandela's treatment before his 2013 death violates doctor-patient confidentiality. However, the now-retired doctor, Vejay Ramlakan, said in an interview broadcast over the weekend on the eNCA news channel that the Mandela family had requested that the book be written. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

JOHANNESBURG – 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.

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