ARCHBISHOP DESMOND Tutu, visibly shaking with anger, has compared the South African government unfavourably with the apartheid regime. He threatened to pray for the downfall of the African National Congress yesterday after the Dalai Lama said he was forced to pull out of the archbishop’s 80th birthday celebrations because he had not been granted an entry visa.
“Our government is worse than the apartheid government because at least you would expect it with the apartheid government,” Archbishop Tutu said. “Our government we expect to be sensitive to the sentiments of our constitution.” In a tirade that stunned South African journalists, he went on: “Let the ANC know they have a large majority. Well, Mubarak had a large majority, Gadafy had a large majority. I am warning you: watch out. Watch out.
“Our government – representing me! – says it will not support Tibetans being viciously oppressed by China. You, President Zuma and your government, do not represent me. I am warning you, as I warned the [pro-apartheid] nationalists, one day we will pray for the defeat of the ANC government.”
Archbishop Tutu had invited his fellow Nobel peace laureate to deliver a lecture to mark his milestone birthday in Cape Town on Friday. Officials from the archbishop’s office started the visa application process in June but met a series of bureaucratic delays.
Yesterday the Dalai Lama’s office finally gave up on the application. “His holiness was to depart for South Africa on October 6th, but visas have not been granted yet,” a spokesman for the office said. “We are, therefore, now convinced that, for whatever reason or reasons, the South African government finds it inconvenient to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama.”
Civil rights activists reacted furiously, claiming South Africa had buckled under pressure from China, its biggest trading partner, which regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist. Ela Gandhi, who planned to present the Dalai Lama with a peace prize in the name of her grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, said: “Everybody thinks this is because of pressure from China. It’s sad another country is allowed to dictate terms to our government. It’s going back to apartheid times.”
South Africa's foreign ministry denied it had bowed to pressure from Beijing. Spokesman Clayson Monyela, said: "He's cancelled his trip and that's it. We have not said no. We've not refused him a visa; the visa was still being processed. It's only on September 20th that he submitted his full paperwork. In some countries a visa can take two months." – ( Guardianservice)