JOHANNESBURG -?South Africa's president says Nelson Mandela remains in the hospital in critical condition.

President Jacob Zuma said Monday that doctors are doing everything possible to ensure the 94-year-old's wellbeing and comfort on his 17th day in a hospital in the capital, Pretoria.

President Zuma visited the anti-apartheid leader at a hospital Sunday evening and was informed by the medical team that Mandela's condition had become critical in the past 24 hours.

Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection. This is his fourth hospitalization since December.