“Archbishop Tutu’s loss will be felt by the people of South Africa and by so many people in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and across the Commonwealth, where he was held in such high affection and esteem.” – Queen Elizabeth II

SOUTH AFRICA — The Government has announced a week of events to mark the passing of the anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday aged 90.

A state funeral will take place on the 1st of January, 2022 in Cape Town. The week event includes two days of lying in state.

South Africans have been going to Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral to lay flowers and pay tribute to the man they call the Arch, a national hero and a thinker.

In his honour, the bells of the St George’s Cathedral, which is the oldest in South Africa, will be rung daily at noon local time until Friday.

Bishop Tutu’s remains will be cremated and his ashes will be kept at the cathedral.

A contemporary of Nelson Mandela, Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle to abolish the apartheid system enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948-91.

Desmond Tutu was became a priest in 1960. Between 1976 and 1978 he served as the bishop of Lesotho. He became Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985, and later became the first black Archbishop of Cape Town the following year.

He used his high-profile role to speak out against oppression of black people in his home country, always saying his motives were religious and not political.

Archbishop Tutu, coined the term Rainbow Nation to describe the ethnic mix of post-apartheid South Africa, but in his latter years he expressed regret that the nation had not coalesced in the way in which he had dreamt.