South Africa began a week of mourning on Monday for revered apartheid fighter Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate passed away on Sunday at the age of 90, stripping the world of a towering moral figure and the last great protagonist of a heroic South African era.
His funeral will be held on New Year’s Day at Cape Town’s St. George’s Cathedral, his former parish, his foundation said, though the ceremonies are likely to be muted due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Dozens of people braved the rain to gather outside the cathedral on Monday, leaving flowers and messages.
The widow of South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, mourned “the loss of a brother” on Monday.
Tutu “is the latest in an extraordinarily outstanding generation of leaders that Africa gave birth to and gave to the world,” he said in a statement.
“He masterfully used his position as a clergyman to mobilize South Africans, Africans and the world community against the brutalities and immorality of the apartheid government,” he said.
“He stood firm and fearless, leading demonstrations wrapped in his flowing clerical robe with his cross as a shield, the embodiment of the moral conscience of humanity.”
The St. George’s bells will ring for 10 minutes from noon every day through Friday. The church has asked those who hear the sound to pause their daily work and think about Tutu.
A memorial service will be held in the capital Pretoria on Wednesday. Family and friends will gather Thursday night around Tutu’s widow, “Mama Leah.”
On Friday, his remains will be deposited in the cathedral on the eve of the funeral, although attendance at his farewell will be limited to 100, according to the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba.
Around 400 people have already expressed their intention to attend the event.
But Makgoba told a press conference: “Only a fraction of those who want to be there can stay in the cathedral. So please don’t get on a bus to Cape Town. ”
Music at the ceremony will also have to be subdued due to Covid curbs, authorities said.
Tutu’s remains will be cremated and his ashes will remain in the cathedral.
– A ‘shield’ – Diminutive, sizzling with humor and warmth, Tutu will be most remembered for speaking out fearlessly against minority white government, even though he campaigned against injustice of any kind.
Ordained at the age of 30 and appointed archbishop in 1986, he used his office to tirelessly advocate for international sanctions against apartheid.
He coined the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe South Africa when Mandela became the country’s first black president in 1994.
He retired in 1996 to lead a harrowing journey into South Africa’s past as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which laid out the horrors of apartheid in terrifying detail.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his central role in the fight against apartheid.
Panyaza Lesufi, a senior member of the African National Congress (ANC) who pushed apartheid aside and remains in power, said Tutu had acted as a “shield” during the protests.
“When we were young activists we knew that as long as Archbishop Tutu was there, the police and the army would not shoot us,” he tweeted.
However, Tutu’s fight against injustice continued long after racial segregation was recorded in the history books.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called Tutu a man of “extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against apartheid forces.”
Ramaphosa was expected to arrive in Cape Town on Monday, the presidency said.
Tutu’s great friend, the Dalai Lama, said in a statement that “we have lost a great man, who lived a truly meaningful life.”
Church leaders in Cape Town said the Dalai Lama was expected to speak at the Tutu service, possibly via video link.
Anglican leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said Tutu “was a great warrior for justice who never stopped fighting.”
“When you were in parts of the world where there was little Anglican presence and people weren’t sure what the Anglican Church was, it was enough to say ‘This is the Church that Desmond Tutu belongs to,’” Welby said in a statement.
The archbishop had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and underwent treatment repeatedly.
He had been weakened for several months and died peacefully at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Sunday, according to several of his relatives interviewed by AFP.
In her later years, Tutu’s public appearances became rarer. This year, he left the hospital in a wheelchair to receive a Covid vaccine, waving but offering no comment.