A spokesman for former US president George H.W. Bush has apologised after erroneously issuing a statement of condolence stating that South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela had died.
Bush spokesman Jim McGrath later explained that he circulated a prepared statement expressing Bush's sorrow at the "death" of the former South African president after misreading a Washington Post news alert about Mandela's discharge from hospital.
Mandela, 95, had earlier returned to his Johannesburg home on Sunday after spending three months in hospital for a respiratory illness.
"The 41 stmnt sent this morning was the result of my mis-reading the header on the WaPo news flash. Stupid mistake by me. Apologies to all," McGrath wrote on his Twitter account @jgm41. "The mistake was mine and not the Bushes," he added later.
Bush's statement earlier described Mandela as "one of the greatest believers in freedom we have had the privilege to know" hailing him as "a man of tremendous moral courage who changed the course of history in his country."
