The Dalai Lama's cancellation on Tuesday of his trip to South Africa was a “dark day”, the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre said.
“He said he feels it is clearly inconvenient for the government,” the centre's spokeswoman Nomfundo Wazala said. “I do not even have the words to say how sad I feel. This is the darkest day. Our officials felt it was not even important to respond to his application.”
The Dalai Lama applied for a visa to South Africa in August to attend the birthday celebrations of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a friend and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, on Friday.
But on Monday, the South African government had yet to announce a decision, prompting speculation it would refuse him entry for fear of offending China.
AFP reported on Tuesday that he had cancelled his trip.
It quoted the Dalai Lama's office in India as saying: “His Holiness was to depart for South Africa on October 6, 2011 but visas have not been granted yet.”
The University of the Witwatersrand also expressed dismay.
"We, as South Africans, have a moral obligation to provide a platform for all voices to be heard, including the voice of the Dalai Lama.
"The university condemns the state for once again not granting a visa for this stalwart of peace to enter our country," said Professor Loyiso Nongxa, the university's vice-chancellor and principal.
"The state's deliberate indecision ridicules the values pertaining to freedom of speech, expression and movement enshrined in our Constitution, and the freedoms for which so many South African have lived, and indeed died," he said.
At a candelight vigil outside Parliament on Monday, Cosatu criticised the government for allowing China to "dictate" its foreign policy.
"Even though China is our biggest trading partner, we should not exchange our morality for dollars or yuan," Cosatu's Western Cape leader Tony Ehrenreich told the gathering.
"It is completely inappropriate and discriminatory that the Dalai Lama should be denied access. Our democracy is founded on diversity, imperfect as it is."
Businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele said at the vigil that both Tutu and the Dalai Lama had been unfairly treated.
"Isn't it ironic that when he's celebrating his 80th birthday, the most fundamental right, the right to association, is being taken away from him?
"He can't have a party with his friends and they are just old men," Ramphele said, according to an SABC radio news report.
She said Tutu and the Dalai Lama were "not really a threat to anybody".
"So why would anybody really want to disturb a lovely party for a lovely set of old men? It's really not fair."
The trip would have been the Nobel peace laureate's fourth to South Africa.
The Dalai Lama visited South Africa on three occasions between 1996 and 2004, and met former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
In 2009, he was refused entry by the Zuma administration to attend a conference of Nobel laureates.
The government said the visit would detract from preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
That decision drew sharp criticism from abroad and at home. - Sapa