Former president Nelson Mandela remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital, President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday evening.

"The former president of the ANC and founding president of a free and democratic South Africa is sadly still in hospital, where he remains in a critical but stable condition," Zuma said at a business meeting in Midrand.

"The doctors are doing everything they can to ensure an improvement in his health."

Zuma urged South Africans to continue keeping the elder statesman in their thoughts and prayers.

The ailing anti-apartheid icon spends his 56th day Thursday in the Pretoria Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital, where he was admitted on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

On Wednesday, police were still stationed at both entrances to the hospital and they searched each car before it could enter.

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