(Image source from: Nelson Mandela standing at death's door})

The ailing former South African President Nelson Mandela is slowly perishing.

According to the latest update, the Nobel Peace Prize winner is 'quite ill', but has been putting up a courageous fight even while he rests at his 'deathbed' counting his final hours.

Talking to a South African Broadcasting Corporation, his daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, said: 'Tata is still with us, strong, courageous. Even for a lack of a better word .... on his `deathbed' he is teaching us lessons; lessons in patience, in love, lessons of tolerance.'

'Every moment I get with him I'm amazed. There are times where I have to pinch myself that I come from this man who is a fighter even though you can see he is struggling, but the fighting spirit is still there with him.'

Mandela had spent almost three months in a Pretoria hospital after he was was admitted in June of recurring lung infection.

The 95-year-old liberation struggle icon was discharged in September, but was put under the care of 22 doctors. His condition then was 'critical but stable'.

Mandela's former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela told a local newspaper that he remains 'quite ill' and is unable to speak because of tubes being used to clear his lungs of liquid. He is using facial expressions to communicate, Ms Madikizela-Mandela added.

While his pneumonia has cleared, his lungs remain sensitive, Ms Madikizela-Mandela said, adding that it is 'difficult for him'.

'He remains very sensitive to any germs, so he has to be kept literally sterile. The bedroom there is like an ICU (intensive care unit) ward,' she told the Sunday Times

'He remains quite ill, but thank God the doctors were able to pull him through from that (last) infection.'

A globally-admired figure for steering South Africa peacefully into democracy, Mandela's failing health remains a big concern for all his well-wishers now.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury