About Desmond Tutu

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The 1990s

Following his appointment in 1989 as State President, FW de Klerk on 2 February 1990 unbanned the ANC and other political parties, and announced plans to release Nelson Mandela from prison, which took place on 11 February.

The process was not without violence: 19 April 1993, Chris Hani, leader of the SACP, was murdered by right-wingers. At Hani's emotionally-charged funeral, Archbishop Tutu urged the crowd of around 120 000 to work peacefully together and end apartheid. He called on the mourners to chant with him: "We will be free!", "All of us!", "Black and white together!"

Archbishop Tutu told the throng: "We are the rainbow people of God! We are unstoppable! Nobody can stop us on our march to victory! No one, no guns, nothing! Nothing will stop us, for we are moving to freedom! We are moving to freedom and nobody can stop us! For God is on our side!"

Following the democratic elections in 1994, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up to bear witness to, record and in some cases, grant amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations.

President Mandela asked Archbishop Tutu to chair the TRC, with Dr Alex Boraine as deputy chairman.

Public hearings of the Human Rights Violations Committee and the Amnesty Committee were held at a number of venues around South Africa. The hearings were often harrowing and emotional, conveying the toll that Apartheid took on all sides of the liberation struggle.

On October 28, 1998 the Commission presented its report, which condemned both sides for their atrocities. The TRC has become a model for a number of similar post-conflict procedures around the world.

When Archbishop Tutu retired in 1996, Nelson Mandela told a dinner to honour him: "His joy in our diversity and his spirit of forgiveness are as much part of his immeasurable contribution to our nation as his passion for justice and his solidarity with the poor."

Widely described as "South Africa's moral conscience," Archbishop Tutu continues to campaign vigorously for human rights throughout the world, speaking out on a variety of issues such as:

• The plight of Zimbabweans under the regime of Robert Mugabe: "We Africans should hang our heads in shame. How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa? After the horrible things done to hapless people in Harare... what more has to happen before we who are leaders, religious and political, of our mother Africa are moved to cry out "Enough is enough?"
• The lack of progress on treating HIV/AIDs in South Africa: "Those of you who work to care for people suffering from AIDS and TB are wiping a tear from God's eye."
• The treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government: "My heart aches. I say, why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?"