Archbishop Desmond Tutu quits

  1. Posted on Thursday 7 October 2010 - 09:50
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    Mohammed Murtala Bako, AfricaNews reporter in Accra, Ghana
    The first black archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu is moving away from public life to give more attention to his family and his favourite game cricket as he chalks 79. The Nobel Peace prize winner came into the political limelight during the apartheid era of South Africa.
    desmond tutu
    The religious leader played central roles in bringing peace to a lot of regional conflicts across the continent.

    The BBC reports that the sometimes controversial figure said he wants to make way for a new generation of leaders. He was described in the report as a man widely considered as a moral compass in South Africa, admired for his integrity and adored for his infectious laugh.
    Resentment and digestion

    As a young cleric back in the 1970s, he was a vocal critic of the apartheid regime.
    In the mid-1980s, when South Africa was still under white minority rule, he campaigned in the townships - on one occasion famously wading into the frontline to call for calm when a mob tried to lynch a suspected undercover policeman.

    He became the first black archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.

    After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, he chaired the Truth and Reconciliation commission - the body set up to investigate apartheid-era crimes - and occasionally broke down in tears at some of the horrific testimony.

    But he always tried to forgive, saying in 2000 that: "Resentment and anger are bad for your blood pressure and your digestion."

    In more recent times, he has been involved in conflict resolution with a group of prominent retired African statesmen called The Elders.

    He has continued to court controversy - singling out leaders such as Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and Britain's Tony Blair for criticism.

    Earlier this year, he described South Africa's hosting of the football World Cup finals as one of the most important events for the country since the end of apartheid.

    He insists his departure aims to clear the way for new talent to blossom, but our correspondent says he remains a potent symbol of South African pride.

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