Happy birthday Tata Tutu

Archbishop Emeritus Mpilo Tutu is turning 79 and still going strong. I had the privilege of working with him in many capacities in my life and have never been able to understand the deep-running humility of this prophetic man of God. In the church he did more than his share when he led the entire church in Southern Africa to place apartheid on the agenda of the entire world, much to the annoyance of some conservative elements — even in the church — who wanted to dance with the monster at that time. His holy and prophetic voice was not just facing the outside world where he almost singularly campaigned for punishing sanctions against the apartheid regime and succeeded, but he equally criticised the liberation movement for their terrible habits such as necklacing (where people were torched using a burning tyre around the neck of the victim) and the much-reported torture at their camps in exile. Who can forget his plea to the evasive Winnie Mandela at the TRC hearings when he said to her: “Just admit, that things did go wrong and apologise.” I get goosebumps at the thought of someone who can break down in the face of the whole world just to save the process meant to liberate so many.

When we were young student leaders in the Christian movement he used to calm us down when the knives were out for the conservative bishops who never wanted to take a stance on matters controversial. As the chancellor of the University of the Western Cape he played his wand of charm when as impatient students we wanted to burn down the place “because our demands were not met”. Today when you look back you realise he has used that position to raise millions for higher education; living proof that he was not merely excited by the title of chancellor. The Arch knew how to take people with him to the most difficult of places. During his reign in the Anglican Church he did not only find himself having to lead the church to deal with the monster of apartheid but the church itself was at a crossroads on issues such as the ordination of women as priests. The rumblings of the conservatives who detested and judged gays were taking root. It is a prophetic vision of leaders like him that sees women priests all over the world today — in fact in the United States the firstwoman gay bishop was inaugurated recently.

The Arch is the epitome of what people who purport to represent God must do. They must look beyond pomp and ceremony. Don’t get me wrong, he loved his ceremonies: strutting his stuff and wearing all of those funny gowns and blessing little children at communion and of course singing on the streets on Palm Sunday “Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war”. But he did not mind donning the purple cloak to lead a march down Adderley Street in Cape Town to show PW Botha the middle finger when it mattered — even in the face of the state of emergency.

In the new South Africa, when it called for it, he became part of gluing the nation together when he served us as head of our very own Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This was one deep, although imperfect process, but it showed us the way forward. Its message: abandon hatred and embrace forgiveness. There are many South Africans who were not satisfied as they wanted to see revenge and Nuremberg-type trials and so on. Led by this affable prophet we did not go down that path and we are unlikely to revisit that chapter ever again in our lifetime. He has not been recognised enough for this groundbreaking intervention.

You would think that a man facing cancer and being almost 80 will slow down. No. That is the way of living saints. You would think that with the role he played to combat apartheid the likes of Cosas and the ANC Youth League will accord him respect and defer to his wisdom — they did not. Some of the insults meted out to him are too embarrassing to repeat. All they did was expose the bankruptcy of our moral standing as a society. It exposed the uncultured nature of people from whose mouths these insults proceeded. To think that young people could think they can get away with insulting a person of that stature quite frankly leaves me quite cold.

When the then president, Thabo Mbeki, weighed in to attack Tutu when he dared criticise him, he did not relent, he instead said “I will pray for you”. The ANC also got upset with him when he said what he really thought of their leader. They did not spare him. They even vowed not to meet with him. Recently he has had to suffer the indignity of being attacked by the hypocritical Ray McCauley, an episode that I can’t help but link to his vocal self on the matter of Zuma’s presidential ambitions.

Tutu is described as a “rabble-rouser for peace” in one of his many books that tell a story of this life so well led. Describing him as a rabble-rouser is an understatement. He was one of the few who denounced Zuma and even asked him to step down until the cloud of corruption eased off above his head. But alas, he had the humility to throw his weight behind him when the people of South Africa elected Zuma as president. To climb down from saying Zuma was such bad news that he would embarrass us all in the streets of New York to saying that “look the man is so friendly that he is disarming” is the kind of honesty that a lot of our leaders lack. Our leaders like to obfuscate when they find themselves in a pickle. They try to be clever. A person like Tutu is simply not of this world. He is what all of us must strive to be.

Make no mistake, he is a maverick all right. I could not believe him coming out in the midst of the ANC internal fights to threaten not to vote if the “ANC does not get its act together”. I was astounded. Because this was a sure way of showing his support for the ANC actually — but he was also crying out for the return to the ANC with which he fought side by side to defeat apartheid, an ANC that has since disappeared. This many have described as a terrible call of partisanship. But as he may well tell you, at that age there is no time to mess around and pretend. If I were him I would have hesitated. Many people who look up to him may have been discouraged from voting as this was already a running sentiment of how we all have been short-changed by the government. Again his ability to support the electoral process was heartening.

Recently Tutu has been traversing the world as a bearer of the tidings of peace. He has made meaningful his status as a Nobel peace laureate among his thousands of accolades from near and far. He has lent his good name to causes such as those to combat HIV and Aids for example. I know he bleeds over the moral rupture that faces our society. Church leaders like Tutu are rare today. Our church leaders are more concerned with VIP invitations to the Union Buildings than marching where our people are experiencing service-delivery problems. They are not there when police are being maimed by criminals. They are silent when the government is preaching its strange shoot-to-kill policies. They are happy to be in the good books of the powers that be instead of being seen to speak truth to power.

Even at this late stage, they have to take a leaf from the book of the fearless and prophetic Tutu who withstood vilification from friends and foes alike. Often the sign of a prophetic witness is to go against the grain of popular sentiment and being unafraid to annoy the powerful and inspire the downtrodden.

His name is ingrained in the psyche of the world. Like Mandela he is a citizen of the world and so we say he is a jolly good fellow … he is a jolly good fellow … and so say all of us!

Happy birthday Tata Tutu.