In the presence of his wife and daughter that morning Tutu was laid out in a simple pine coffin in Cape Town’s St. George’s Cathedral. The funeral service will also take place on January 1st in the cathedral, where Tutu will also be buried later.
The country’s most prominent clergyman died on Sunday at the age of 90. Since then, the flags have been waving at half-mast in public buildings in the Cape State, and funeral ceremonies have already taken place in many places. Together with Nelson Mandela, Tutu had fought against the racist apartheid system that wanted to establish white dominance in South Africa. After his fall, Tutu, born in Klerksdorp near Johannesburg in 1931, was an advocate for reconciliation between black and white people.