Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital.
Mr Mandela has been sent home today after a keyhole abdominal examination showed that there was nothing seriously wrong with the 93-year-old anti-apartheid leader.
His departure from Pretoria's "1 Military" hospital in a multi-vehicle motorcade marks the end of an anxious 24-hour wait for South Africa's 50m people, after Mandela was admitted yesterday morning with "long-standing abdominal pain".
The government insisted throughout that there was nothing to panic about.
Earlier, at a press conference, South Africa's Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said Mr Mandela underwent laparoscopy and is doing "fine".
"He had investigative laparoscopy," a procedure in which the abdominal area is probed by tiny cameras inserted through small incisions, Sisulu told the press conference.
"He's fine and he is recovering from anaesthetic and he is as fine as can be at his age. He is fine and handsome."
Despite widespread public affection, most accept that Mandela, who was incarcerated for 27 years by the apartheid government, may not live for much longer.
Mandela's last public appearance was in July 2010 at the final of the World Cup in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium.
He now divides his time between his home in Johannesburg's northern suburbs and his ancestral village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
