The flags will fly at half mast for five days and on Saturday the funeral of the Nobel Peace Prize and anti-apartheid hero will be held in Cape Town
The passing of the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, revered in South Africa for his fight against apartheid and for reconciliation, has plunged the country into deep mourning. This Monday, while hundreds of people laid flowers and signed with emotional words the five books of condolences arranged in the Cathedral of Saint George – where his remains will rest – the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, announced that until Friday the flags will fly at half mast in all the territory. Also in the diplomatic missions abroad of the so-called ‘rainbow nation’.
At 12 noon local time Monday, the bells of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town rang for ten minutes to remember Tutu’s legacy. The tribute will be repeated every day until Friday, when his remains will rest in a burning chapel of the temple before being cremated on Saturday after a funeral “whose details and other events will be announced in the next few days,” Ramaphosa told local media.
“We have lost a person who carried the burden of leadership with compassion, dignity, humility and good humor and left an indelible mark on the lives of millions of people who had the privilege and honor of knowing him,” said the head of state. Like him, there were many voices around the world that expressed their regret for the irreparable loss. The condolences expressed the day before by Pope Francis, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, former US President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II, were joined last day by Joe Biden, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the Prime Minister British, Boris Johnson, among other figures such as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Other tributes
The Nobel Peace Prize family detailed in a statement that a mass will be celebrated this Wednesday in the diocese of the South African capital, Pretoria. That night, Cape Town will also host a special tribute at its City Hall, with the presence of loved ones of the deceased, his foundation and various religions and tribes. The town hall and Table Mountain will be equally illuminated every night this week in purple, the color of the archiepiscopal cassock of Tutu.
The Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, asked, for his part, all those who listen to the ringing of the bells every noon “to pause for a moment their busy schedules in tribute” to Tutu, whose ashes will be buried in an ossuary behind from the pulpit of the also known as ‘Cathedral of the People’, according to your wishes.
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