Johannesburg- As Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu was laid to rest this past weekend, one of the abiding principles that characterized his life came to mind: that of remaining on the side of the truth.
In October 2011, an angry Tutu lashed out at the ANC government and warned that they, like the nationalists who presided over apartheid, would lose power.
Tutu was upset that the democratic government had denied Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a visa to visit the country, in a move believed to appease the Chinese, which is South Africa’s biggest trade partner and has emerged as the world’s second-biggest economy.
“I am warning you out of love. I am warning you like I warned the nationalists, that one day we will start praying for the defeat of the ANC government. You are disgraceful,” he said.
Tutu’s warning was in keeping with one of the attributes that came to characterize his life – that of speaking truth to power, whether against the apartheid government or the democratic state.
The man of the cloth had well-documented run-ins with the founding president of democratic South Africa Nelson Mandela over the government’s continuation of the apartheid arms trade, and the decision by cabinet and parliament to increase the salaries of MPs.
Tutu would continue to be critical of the Thabo Mbeki administration’s response to the HIV/Aids pandemic. He was also sharply critical of former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure in office.
He was firm in his opposition to the US invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s, and was not shy to take on Robert Mugabe for the way he ran down Zimbabwe. His outspoken support of Palestinians was also well-documented.
Tutu, fondly known as the Arch, was born in Klerksdorp on October 7 1931 to Zachariah Tutu and Aletta Mathlare. He was one of four children.
He completed his teacher’s diploma and taught in Munsieville, Krugersdorp, on the West Rand in 1954, the same year that the Bantu Education Act came into effect.
Before he took on the government of the day, he was a fierce critic of the apartheid government. In the wake of the 1976 student uprisings, Tutu was persuaded to take up the post of general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, a position that catapulted him to the status of a national and international figure.
In 1989, he led hundreds of black and mixed-race people to declare the end of apartheid on two whites-only beaches by picnicking, swimming, singing and praying under the watchful eye of the police.
Tutu and his fellow protesters swamped a conservative seaside town 32km east of Cape Town.
They made sure they had staked their claim properly. “They walked around and wet their feet in God’s water,” he said as his defiance campaign, which he was to dub All God’s Beaches for All God’s People, took root across the country
Tutu and other church leaders, including Allan Boesak, were arrested in 1988 as they marched toward parliament with a petition protesting the government’s crackdown on anti-apartheid groups.
In 1984, Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his untiring efforts in calling for the end of white minority rule, becoming the second black South African to be listed under the Nobel Laureates after Chief Albert Luthuli.
Mandela would later ask Tutu to be the chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) after the 1994 elections. In 1996, Tutu retired from the church to focus on the TRC.
On his last address as the Archbishop of the Province of Southern Africa, he was awarded with the Order for Meritorious Service (Gold) for his outstanding service to the country.
As tributes poured in from far and afield, it is the words of Mandela that ring loud about Tutu. Bestowing the award of the Order for Meritorious Service, Mandela said: “He is renowned for selfless commitment to the poor, the oppressed and downtrodden.”
Mandela added: “With his colleagues he remained an effective voice of the people of South Africa when so many of their leaders were imprisoned, exiled, banned and restricted.”
Tutu also championed LGBT rights and same-sex marriage – this extended to his family.
In 2015, his daughter Mpho Tutu married Marceline van Furth, a Dutch woman. Shortly after the marriage, the Diocese of Saldanha Bay withdrew her licence as a priest.
Tutu and his wife Nomalizo Leah Tutu supported Mpho.
Five memorable quotes that remind us of Tutu in his own words:
These are five memorable quotes that remind us of Tutu in his own words:
- “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
- “There is no peace in southern Africa. There is no peace because there is no justice.”
- “We will be free! All of us. Black and white together,” Tutu urged the crowd to chant with him during an emotionally charged funeral of SACP leader Chris Hani in April 1993.
- “When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognising the humanity in others,” Tutu wrote in the book God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time.
5. “I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this,” he said at the 2013 launch of the Free and Equal campaign in Cape Town. “I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level.”
Also Read: Nurse shares story of how Archbishop Tutu changed her life
Where are the Tutu’s of our Time?
Look: World leaders remember Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu: Moral giant who told us what we needed to hear
To read more political news and views, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
