In this file image taken from video, the ailing anti-apartheid icon Nelson Madela is filmed April 29 after being released from hospital. Mandela was taken to a hospital again on June 8 because of a lung infection. Former South African President Nelson Mandela has returned unannounced to his home in Johannesburg after a long stay in hospital in Pretoria.

The 95-year-old was admitted with a recurring lung infection on 8 June.

His condition was last week described as “critical but stable”, and there has been no official update on his health since then.

The infection is said to date back to a period of nearly three decades he spent in prison for anti-apartheid activity.

The BBC’s Mike Wooldridge in Johannesburg says it will be a relief for his family and for the nation that Mr Mandela has improved sufficiently for the journey to be made and for him to be cared for at home.