President Cyril Ramaphosa says he has spoken to former cabinet minister Pravin Gordhan, who is being treated in hospital, and conveyed his best wishes.
Gordhan was admitted to hospital on Tuesday.
The reason for his hospitalisation has not been disclosed.
However, Gordhan’s family has said that he is receiving the best available medical care.
The President was addressing the media after answering questions in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
Meanwhile, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula appealed to the media not to speculate on Gordhan’s condition.
Mbalula says he had also spoken to Gordhan who he described as a loyal and effective member of the party.
He adds, “Indeed comrade PG is in a critical condition and is receiving the necessary medical attention. He is surrounded by family and friends and comrades.”
On Wednesday, friends of Gordhan gathered at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg to pray for his speedy recovery.
Gordhan retired from active politics and public office at the end of the term of the sixth administration following the May elections.
“The whole area of having been a very important revolutionary and the kind of role he played then. The second has been his role that he played in formal government. So, both those roles, he had a formidable influence on society. Just a little bit about the role he played in the past, I know him from the 70s, so I’m getting quite old, but in the 70s, he was part of the student movement, part of the student action there, part of reviving the NIC and trying to create in the NIC a mass organisation,” said one of the speakers at the vigil.
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