Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, the conscience of South Africa, celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday with a gala dinner attended by 1 200 guests, including former president Nelson Mandela.
The celebrations for his birthday have lasted for weeks. On Friday, he was guest of honour at a ceremony at the University of South Africa.
The ruling African National Congress added its voice to hundreds of well-wishers, paying tribute to the life work of Tutu.
”We are appreciative of the fact that you have dedicated your entire life to the quest for peace, justice, human dignity and human rights in our country,” it said in a statement.
Earlier this week, when asked what he would like to achieve in his remaining years, Tutu said he would like to see the achievement of peace in Darfur, Zimbabwe and other troubled places in the world.
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe once called Tutu an ”angry, evil and embittered little bishop” after the Nobel laureate criticised the country’s human rights record and called Mugabe ”a cartoon figure of an archetypical African dictator”.
Earlier this year, Tutu was named a member of a United Nations advisory panel on genocide prevention, drawing on his long experience as a campaigner against apartheid. He was named Anglican archbishop of Cape Town in 1986 and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
He retired in 1996, hoping for a ”slightly less hectic life,” but then agreed to a request by Mandela to head the Truth and Reconciliation set up to help the country come to terms with the horrors committed under white racist rule.
Tutu sometimes broke down and wept with the victims as he listened for two years to harrowing testimony about atrocities committed under apartheid — abductions, torture, death squads and bodies torched beyond recognition as their killers enjoyed a meal on the side.
He criticised South Africa’s last white president, FW De Klerk, for failing to accept responsibility for apartheid’s evils — and also lambasted the current government’s limit of R30 000 ($5 000) for victims as stingy.
Just as Tutu was a thorn in the flesh of the white government, he has not shied away from criticising leaders of the ruling ANC.
He recently outraged supporters of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma by saying the popular politician should withdraw from the race to become the country’s next president. He said in a public lecture that he would not be able to hold his ”head high” if Zuma became leader after being accused both of rape and corruption.
Tutu disclosed last year that he had a recurrence of prostate cancer first diagnosed in 1997, although it hasn’t had a noticeable impact on his hectic schedule or bouncy step. – Sapa-AP