Thabo Jijana, News24 User
In what was supposed to have been a concluded affair early this year, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was finally awarded with an honorary doctorate by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University on Friday.
A somewhat less-publicised gala event on August 31, a much-appreciative Tutu made to deliver a thought-provoking speech when he accepted the doctorate from NMMU Chancellor Chief Justice Pius Langa.
In commemorating the doctorate to lost political struggle heroes and heroines, in particular of the Eastern Cape province such as Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko, Tutu was reminiscent of what his life's - and perhaps his country?s - achievements were since the 1994 historical political chapter was penned down.
Tutu said if the heroes "of the province" of yesteryears could have survived the past's violent hardships to witness the new South Africa, he envisaged they would question a numerable ill-issues that still continue to persist the larger South African community.
He said: "I wonder what they could say if they could visit present-day South Africa? They would be thrilled. Thrilled, that we had chosen a course of reconciliation rather than retribution."
Mpilo Tutu also managed to touch on the crime situation that has plagued the country.
'Crossed to the promised land'
"They would ask: 'What happened to Ubuntu'? . . . Hijackers who kill for the sheer enjoyment of it.
"Indeed some have crossed the Jordaan to the promised land," he added. But no many can profess to that notion, Tutu said.
This award is an addition to Tutu's collection of rewards - another gift to a life-long fight for equality in our country for the father of the Rainbow Nation.
Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize holder (awarded in 1984) "in recognition of the courage and heroism shown by black South Africans in their use of peaceful methods in the struggle against apartheid", is at the least, also a notable holder of the Martin Luther King Jr Non Violent Peace Prize, to mention but one.
In congratulating Tutu on behalf of the NMMU, Chairperson of Council Justice Pillay, described Tutu - an avid fan of the Proteas cricket national team - as a leader who abled society the right and opportunity "to uphold values and principles".
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