A court document dated June 26, 2013 advising anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela's family to turn off his life support aroused controversy about Mr Mandela's true condition.

The leaked court document was obtained by the AFP news agency.

The document said that Mr Mandela "is in a permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine. The Mandela family have been advised by the medical practitioners that his life support machine should be switched off. Rather than prolonging his suffering, the Mandela family is exploring this option as a very real probability."

The document was purportedly released by lawyers in behalf of fifteen of the Mandela family members, his wife and three daughters included.

What aroused the controversy more was that on the very day that this court document was leaked, President Jacob Zuma said that Mr Mandela's health has deteriorated. He then cancelled a trip to Mozambique and stayed in the hospital with the Mandela family.

With this leaked document, different media headlined conflicting reports on Mr Mandela's true health condition.

News.com.au reported that "Nelson Mandela in permanent vegetative state" while CNN's headline went, "Nelson Mandela's health perilous court documents say."

However, Telegraph reported otherwise, saying that, "Nelson Mandela's doctors deny he was in permanent vegetative state."

According to the report, the doctors deny the controversy brought about by the leaked court document upon Mandela family's request. "We confirm our earlier statement released this afternoon after President Jacob Zuma visited madiba in hospital that Madiba remains in a critical, but stable condition. The doctors deny that the former President is in a vegetative state."

South African president Jacob Zuma had also clarified the issue saying that "Former President Mandela has been and remains under the care of a multidisciplinary panel of South African medical experts drawn from the South Africa military health Services, the public sector, the universities and the private sector. Under this panel a team of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health professionals attend to Madiba on a 24 hour basis."

Graca Machel, Mr Mandela's wife, seemed really affected about the controversy that she had spoken publicly for the first time. She said that her husband is "fine" and not experiencing anything suggestive of terrible pain.

Ms Machel said, although Madiba sometimes may be uncomfortable, very few times he is in pain, but he is fine."

Mr Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj's opinion of the matter was that the lawyers speaking in b behalf of the family members had overstated Mr Mandela's condition written in the leaked court document.

Mr Maharaj said, "We have reported even today as a result of President Zuma's visit that Madiba remains in a critical but stable condition and that is based on Mr Zuma going to the hospital and being briefed by the doctors. Certainly in that statement, there is no suggestion that he is in a vegetative state."

In a much absurd take on Mr Mandela's health condition, journalists from the Guardian Express stand by their assumption that Mr Mandela was already dead saying that "the British government approached the South African government on June 30, 2013 and requested permission to hold a memorial service for Nelson Mandela and that the Queen will be attending."

The journalists wrote, "The death of Nelson Mandela was a tragedy and the cover-up, a travesty. That the Mandela family has been coerced into backing the lie is obvious. We stand firm on our claim that the great man died last week and we know that this travesty will soon be over."