JOHANNESBURG, S. AFRICA — Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel laureate returned to his Johannesburg home on Sunday after spending a night in a hospital for what presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said was a “successful” medical exam. Maharaj said Mandela was “well.”

The 94-year-old, however, has grown increasingly frail over the years. In December, he spent three weeks in a hospital, where he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones.

The revered leader’s brief hospitalization comes at a time when South Africa is struggling to live up to the promise that Mandela has come to symbolize.