By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN (Reuters). Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a great hero in the fight against South Africa’s apartheid regime. On Saturday, he will be laid in state at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. There he had preached for many years against racial inequality.

Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the principal eulogy to Tutu. His death at 90 on Sunday prompted a worldwide outpouring tributes.

Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for 1984 for non-violent resistance to white minority rule. His infectious smile and friendly demeanour were matched by a determined determination to defend the oppressed during apartheid’s darkest hour and into the 21st Century.

Tutu is widely respected across South Africa’s cultural and racial divides as a man of moral integrity. Tutu has never stopped fighting for his “Rainbow Nation”, where all South Africans can live together in peace.

A charismatic cleric once stated, “Without forgiveness it’s not possible to see the future.”

SIMPLE COFFIN

On Thursday and Friday, hundreds of people waited in line to pay their final respects to Tutu. He was lying in state in the cathedral’s simple pine coffin, with rope handles. This was in keeping with his request for a cheap funeral.

When security forces brutally suppressed the democratic mass movement, Tutu was the Anglican archbishop in Cape Town.

After Saturday’s requiem Mass, his body will be cremated and then buried behind the pulpit where he had once condemned bigotry.

In honour of Tutu, the “moral compass” in South Africa’s history, St George’s has had church bells ringing daily since this week. Tutu is often referred to as “Tata”, or father, by many.

Nelson Mandela who passed away in December 2013 described Desmond Tutu, his long-time friend, as “Sometimes strident but often tender, never afraid or without humour”,