Hundreds pay respects to Desmond Tutu ahead of low-key funeral

Clerics, family members, close friends and dignitaries will attend a requiem mass for Tutu, the icon of the fight for freedom in South Africa, on Saturday morning. Their numbers will be restricted due to Covid regulations. President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to read a eulogy.

Though the former archbishop of Cape Town had largely retreated from public life in recent years, Tutu had continued his lifelong fight for causes he believed in, forcefully supporting LGBT rights, equal access to education and the assisted dying movement.

Since Thursday morning, mourners have filed through the cathedral to light candles. Many sat in the pews to pray and reflect.

By the late 1970s, the diminutive cleric was one of the leaders of the freedom struggle best known overseas and played a leading role in forcing western leaders to confront the moral cost of cold war calculations that led to tacit support for white-minority rule in South Africa.