The funeral of veteran Tutu against apartheid in South Africa begins by Reuters

Author: Wendell Roelf

EARTHQUAKE (Reuters) – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the hero of the fight against apartheid in South Africa, began Saturday at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, where he preached against racial injustice for years.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to pay tribute to Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent opposition to white minority rule. He died on Sunday at the age of 90, causing many tributes around the world.

Tutu’s widow Nomalizo Leah, known as “Mama Leah,” was sitting in a wheelchair in the front row of the church, dressed in a purple scarf. Ramaphosa sat next to him in a matching tie.

The cathedral and Mount Mahaia, which rises above the city, have been illuminated with purple every night this week, the color of Tutu’s clerical attire.

Life-size Tutu posters, hands clasped, were placed outside the cathedral, where the number of congregations was limited in accordance with COVID-19 measures.

Hundreds of people lined up on Thursday and Friday to pay their last respects to Tuturi as he stood in the cathedral. On Saturday, his solemn coffin was re-entered the church as the requiem mass was underway.

Afterwards, the choir gave a prolific rendition of the song “Great is Your Faithfullness.”

Tutu was highly respected throughout the South African race and culture for its moral integrity. He never gave up fighting for the vision of a “Rainbow Nation” where all post-apartheid South African races could live in harmony.

Cape Town, the city where Tutu lived most of his life, was a rainy season on Saturday, mourning the man who is known as the “Arch” and often described as the “moral compass” of South Africa.

‘CATHEDRAL OF THE TOWN’

As an Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, Tutu became known as St. George’s “Cathedral of the City” in the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when security forces violently repressed the democratic mass movement, a refuge for anti-apartheid activists.

His body will be cremated in a private ceremony after the requiem mass and then buried behind the pulpit from a place where he once denounced arrogance and racial tyranny.

A small crowd of about 100 people followed the funeral ceremony on a large screen in the Grand Parade, opposite the town hall, where he joined Tutu Nelson Mandela when he gave his first speech after his release from prison.

Mandela, who was the first post-apartheid president in the country and died in December 2013, once said of his friend:

“Sometimes sharp, often tender, never fearful and rarely without humor, Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless.”