South Africa’s president bids farewell to Tutu, ‘our moral compass,’ at state funeral

During a state funeral on Saturday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu “our moral compass and national conscience.”

“Our departed father was a crusader in the struggle for freedom, for justice, for equality and for peace, not just in South Africa, the country of his birth, but around the world,” Ramaphosa said as he eulogized Tutu at St. George’s Cathedral, the church in Cape Town where the archbishop preached, according to Reuters.

“Small in physical stature, he was a giant among us morally and spiritually,” retired Bishop Michael Nuttall, who was Tutu’s deputy for years, added, per the news service.

The funeral came after hundreds of people paid their respects to the late anti-apartheid leader as his body laid in state at the cathedral on Thursday and Friday, Reuters added. 

Tutu, known fondly as “The Arch,” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent, anti-apartheid leadership. He died last Sunday at age 90. 

“Tutu was a living embodiment of faith in action, speaking boldly against racism, injustice, corruption, and oppression, not just in apartheid South Africa but wherever in the world he saw wrongdoing, especially when it impacted the most vulnerable and voiceless in society,” the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said in a statement at the time of his death.

In a statement following the archbishop’s passing, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden expressed their condolences to Tutu’s family and said his “legacy transcends borders and will echo throughout the ages.”