Desmond Tutu fans have flooded social networking sites, wishing the struggle icon happy birthday on Thursday as he officially began his retirement.
Real-time results on Twitter flooded in by the second.
“Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless,” tweeted @CharlieZulu75, quoting Nelson Mandela.
Others were more jovial, in keeping with Tutu’s famed sense of humour. “I wonder if Desmond Tutu knows his name is an anagram of mounted stud?” tweeted @Shrimpin.
The former archbishop’s 79th birthday brings the curtain down on a career that saw him win a Nobel Peace Prize for battling apartheid before emerging as South Africa’s conscience.
Tutu announced in July that he would step down from public life on his 79th birthday, which he will celebrate on Thursday on board a cruise ship docked in Cape Town, where he served as archbishop for the Anglican Church.
His Facebook fan page was also buzzing with birthday messages from his some 19 201 fans. Elsewhere on the popular site Tutu made a regular appearance on individual status updates.
“Almost forgot that today is the Arch’s birthday,” said one Lyall Blaauw. “That man is just Tutu cool.”
Big shots like the US Mission to South Africa, including the embassy as well as consulates, got in on the action too, wishing Tutu happy birthday on their Facebook page and tweeting a touching Time magazine interview with Tutu on his retirement.
“He’s serious about quieting down,” said Tutu’s spokesperson Dan Vaughan. “He will now be refusing most of the interview requests he receives.”
It will be a blow to fans and the media in South Africa, where adoration for Tutu is second only to former president Nelson Mandela.
Tutu is currently lecturing on board a ship packed with 600 university students on a five-month voyage around the world, which ends in December.
However his retirement has been greeted with doubt that Tutu will actually step away from public life, with no coverage of his retirement in national media.
The Archbishop of York in England, John Sentamu, seemed familiar with Tutu’s indefatigable nature. He tweeted on Thursday morning: “Happy birthday to Desmond Tutu as he steps down from public life. I suspect it is not the last we will hear from the great man!”
It was a sentiment retweeted by at least a dozen others.
Tutu is planning to continue his work with The Elders, a group of leading statesmen that includes Mandela, and with a group of fellow Nobel laureates that speaks out against injustices around the world.
Tutu is also still working to develop the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, where the organisation is building a new complex to house his peace projects.
The archbishop made port in Cape Town on Sunday and plans to celebrate his birthday and his retirement with friends later in the day, Vaughan said.
“The ship happens to be in Cape Town today, and he’ll be having a birthday celebration on board with friends,” Vaughan said.
Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent struggle against apartheid, establishing himself as the voice of the nation’s conscience.
In the years since, he proved tireless in leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to uncover the horrors of apartheid-era abuses.
Tutu never shied away from shining a spotlight on modern South Africa’s failings, and has made statements about corruption and aids denialism that has proved deeply unpopular with the ruling ANC at times. — with Sapa