A tribute to a man who served his country and humanity

Abstract

The last time – as far as I could establish – that Archbishop Tutu visited the PUK was when I was SRC president and the “Politiese Raad” invited him to speak to the students – in 1977 or 1978. This was at a time when the PUK’s students (including myself) were on the forefront of very critical thinking by the Afrikaans universities about issues such as the Mixed Marriages Act and section 16 of the Immorality Act. We were, to put it mildly, a bit controversial. When I met Bishop Tutu (as he was then) on the steps of the Studentesentrum and introduced myself, he looked at me intensively and said in his characteristic voice: “Young man, you have been saying some strange things lately.”