admin
Beeld reported that Tutu erupted with a raw, anguished cry despite sitting right behind a deputy minister and top ANC member.
The chatty audience at the book launch of Father Michael Lapsley’s autobiography Redeeming the Past was immediately silenced.
“What on earth are you doing!” Tutu called out.
“I am 80 years old. Can’t you allow us elders to go to our graves with a smile, knowing that this is a good country? Because truly — it is a good country!” Tutu pleaded emotionally.
Struggle activist Lapsley lost both hands and an eye in a letter bomb sent by apartheid authorities.
When Tutu later spoke at the podium he asked: “How can we have children 18 years later (after the dawn of democracy) who go to school under trees and whose education is being crushed without textbooks and no one is held accountable? Have we so quickly forgotten the price of freedom?
“People are going to sleep hungry in this freedom for which people were tortured and harmed . . .
“It is difficult to believe people are getting such money and benefits, and are driving such flashy cars while the masses suffer in cramped shacks.”
“Marikana felt like a nightmare, but that is what our democracy is in 2012.” — News24
Online Reporter