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Mandela has no bitterness - Tutu
18/07/2003 18:21 - (SA)
Donwald Pressly
Cape Town - Anglican Archbiship Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Friday that without someone like Nelson Mandela the new South
Africa may not have got past first base.
In a message posted on the Mandela foundation/International Marketing Council birthday message link on the internet, the archbishop joined thousands of others in wishing the former president a joyful 85th birthday today - Friday July 18.
Tutu, who like Mandela is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said: "It is almost certain that had we had anyone else less richly endowed with the gifts Madiba has demonstrated, we would not have made it to first base."
"Just imagine - had Mr de Klerk (then South African President FW de Klerk) encountered someone consumed by bitterness and a lust for revenge and retribution, it is highly unlikely that he would have announced the very courageous initiatives which took our breath away on February 2, 1990 (when
the democratic reforms were announced)."
"He was able to have done so because he was confronted by someone who after 27 years of incarceration, quite remarkably, was without a trace of bitterness."
Tutu said further that Mandela was someone "who was to bowl us all over with his magnanimity and willingness to forgive".
Jailer invited
"He lived out what he asked of others. He invited his white jailer to attend his presidential inauguration as a VIP guest. He had lunch at the presidency with Dr Percy Yutar who had demanded the death penalty for the Rivonia trialists. He visited Mrs Betsy Verwoerd, widow of the architect of apartheid (Dr Hendrik Verwoerd)."
"We accomplished a relatively peaceful transition in 1994 largely because of him, because of his remarkable stature as a man of integrity, compassion and forgiveness. We owe him an immense debt of gratitude and want to wish him the richest blessings for his 85th birthday and pray that he has many more."
"We accomplished a relatively peaceful transition in 1994 largely because of him, because of his remarkable stature as a man of integrity, compassion and forgiveness. We owe him an immense debt of gratitude and want to wish him the richest blessings for his 85th birthday and pray that he has many more," the retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said.
- I-Net Bridge (Business)
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