As a result of the treatment, the doctors took a blood sample and said 'your blood is clean of the cancer'

Nelson Mandela

Mr Mandela, 83, announced last July that he had prostate cancer and underwent seven weeks of radiotherapy.

But according to the AFP news agency, he told an audience in Cape Town that doctors had given him the all-clear.

Speaking at a ceremony to present the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, he said he was delighted at the news.

"As a result of the treatment, the doctors took a blood sample and said 'your blood is clean of the cancer'," AFP quoted him as saying.

Punishing schedule

In 1985, while in prison, Mr Mandela was hospitalised for prostate surgery and had some tumours removed. They proved to be benign.

Had she been here I would have said: 'Darling, let's go and dance'

Nelson Mandela

He then returned to jail, where he remained until his release in February 1990, a pivotal moment in South Africa's history.

Now retired from active politics, he still maintains a punishing travel schedule, often to collect achievement awards.

Mr Mandela remains a fit and generally healthy man, but is starting to appear more frail

Four years ago, the Nobel peace prize winner married Graca Machel, the widow of the former president of Mozambique.

He told his Cape Town audience it had been a pity she was not in the country when doctors gave him the good news.

"Because had she been here I would have said: 'Darling, let's go and dance'," he said.