Tutu glad Mandela is dead: report

Cape Town-140423-Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu addresses the media on 20 years of Democracy in St George's Cathedral. Picture Jeffrey Abrahams. Reporter Jason Felix

Cape Town-140423-Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu addresses the media on 20 years of Democracy in St George's Cathedral. Picture Jeffrey Abrahams. Reporter Jason Felix

Published Apr 27, 2014

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Johannesburg - Archbishop Desmond Tutu was glad former president Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters were not alive to witness the slow pace of transformation in South Africa, the Sunday Times reported.

“I'm glad that Madiba is dead. I'm glad that most of these people are no longer alive to see this,” Tutu was quoted as saying by the paper.

Tutu made the comments when he was interviewed ahead of the release of a book he wrote with his daughter, Reverend Mpho Tutu this week.

“I didn't think there would be a disillusionment so soon,” he said.

ANC secretary Gwede Mantashe was quoted by the paper saying: “The problem in this country, in general, is everyone speaks for Nelson Mandela, but the people who speak for him do not do so efficiently.”

Tutu said at a briefing on Wednesday that he no longer supported the African National Congress's leadership as he did when he first voted on April 27, 1994.

“I have sought to support a party that would be as close as possible to the sorts of things we would love to see. On the whole the ANC was that,” he said.

“Have you noticed the past tense,” he added.

Sapa

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