Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has joined the call to South Africans to pray for former president Nelson Mandela.
SABC radio news reports the King wished Madiba a speedy recovery and thanked the medical team looking after him.
Mandela is spending Christmas Day in hospital in Pretoria, having been flown there from his Eastern Cape home at Qunu on December 8. He was diagnosed with a lung infection and also underwent gallstone surgery.
His current stay in hospital is his longest since he was freed over two decades ago.
