CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuters) – President Cyril Ramaphosa clocked Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Saturday, which he called a “moral compass” and “national conscience”, while South Africa Sud bade farewell to this icon of the struggle against apartheid during a national funeral.
“Our late father was a believer in the struggle for freedom, justice, equality and peace, not only in South Africa, his native country, but also in the whole world”, declared Cyril Ramaphosa during ‘a funeral lodge in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, where Desmond Tutu preached for years against racial injustice.
The President then presented the national flag to the widow of the Anglican Archbishop, Nomalizo Leah, known as “Mama Leah”.
Desmond Tutu, whose death on Sunday at the age of 90 sparked a wave of tributes around the world, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent opposition to the domination of the white minority in South Africa. South.
His body will be cremated, then his ashes will be buried behind the pulpit of the cathedral during a private ceremony.
Life-size posters of Desmond Tutu with folded hands have been placed outside the cathedral where the number of worshipers allowed has been reduced in accordance with measures against COVID-19.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in a recorded message: “People said ‘when we were in the dark he brought light’ and that … made countries all over the world clear who fight against fear, conflict, persecution, oppression. “
THE RAINBOW NATION
With deep respect for his moral integrity, Desmond never ceased to fight for his vision of a “rainbow nation” in which all South African cultures could live in harmony.
Hundreds of people lined up Thursday and Friday to pay their last respects as his body was on display in the cathedral.
As Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu made St. George the “People’s Cathedral”, a haven for anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s and 1990s when security forces brutally suppressed the democratic movement.
About a hundred people watched the funeral on a big screen in front of the Town Hall.
“We have come to pay a final tribute to our father Tutu. We love our father, who taught us love, unity and respect for each other,” said Mama Phila, a 54-year-old Rastafarian, draped in the green, red and yellow colors of the movement.
(Report Wendell Roelf, with Nqobile Dludla, written by James Macharia Chege, French version Laetitia Volga)
by Wendell Roelf