Spokesman says Tutu, a critic of the ANC ,
has not been given accreditation but
government insists he is on guest list .
South Africa ' s retired Archbishop Desmond
Tutu will not attend the state funeral
on Sunday for his friend and fellow Nobel
peace laureate and anti- apartheid hero
Nelson Mandela , his family spokesman has
said .
Roger Friedman said on Saturday that the
Anglican prelate was not accredited as a
member of the clergy for the event in
Qunu in Eastern Cape province, but
government officials insisted he was on the
guest list .
" The archbishop is not an accredited clergy
person for the event and will thus not be
attending, " Friedman said , citing
a statement made by Tutu' s daughter the
Reverend Mpho Tutu.
Mandela , who died last week at the age of
95 , had a close friendship with Tutu forged
in the struggle against apartheid .
The archbishop is not an accredited clergy
person for the event and will thus not be
attending.
Roger Friedman , Tutu spokesman
Tutu' s absence from the global icon' s final
farewell raises questions about the outspoken
clergyman ' s strained relationship with the
current South African government and ruling
ANC party.
Asked about Tutu ' s attendance , foreign
ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela told the
Reuters news agency: " Desmond Tutu is
definitely on the guest list " .
" I suspect the issue here is whether he
would have provided any official duties as a
clergy person . . . he may have taken
a decision not to attend the funeral , " he
added .
The controversy emerged as Mandela ' s body
was being flown to the Eastern Cape
province for Sunday ' s funeral , which will be
attended by Britain' s Prince Charles and US
civil rights activist Reverend Jessie Jackson,
among others .
At a mass memorial ceremony for Mandela
on Tuesday in Johannesburg , Tutu was not
initially on the speaker ' s list but he was
eventually invited to the podium and tried
to calm an unruly crowd that had booed
President Jacob Zuma .
Leading moral light
In his autobiography ' Long Walk to
Freedom, ' Mandela warmly described Tutu
as " a man who had inspired an entire nation
with his words and his courage , who had
revived the people' s hope during the darkest
of times . "
Since the end of apartheid in 1994 , Tutu,
82, has become a fierce critic of the ruling
Africa National Congress ( ANC ) , accusing it
of losing its way and straying from the ideal
of a " Rainbow Nation " of shared prosperity
that he and Mandela had envisaged .
Tutu has criticised Zuma ' s leadership and in
2004 , under then President Thabo Mbeki ,
he accused the ANC of
promoting " kowtowing " and said its black
economic empowerment ( BEE) policies
were helping only a small elite .
Mbeki gave a scathing response, saying
Tutu' s comments on economic empowerment
were " entirely false " and accusing him of
" empty rhetoric " .
Tutu remains one of the country ' s leading
moral lights and chaired the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission , the body set
up after the end of apartheid to examine
human rights abuses .