A few months ago, Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced that following his 79th birthday on 7 October this year, he would be retiring from public life.

“The time has come to slow down,” he said. “To sip rooibos tea with my beloved wife in the afternoons, to watch cricket, to travel to visit my children and grandchildren, rather than to conferences, conventions and university campuses.”

I immediately thought of his address at the Soccer World Cup this year.

The infectious laugh, his hips swivelling and his eyes dancing as he welcomed the rest of the globe to our own backyard.

I have had the honour and privilege of interviewing some of South Africa’s – and, indeed, the world’s – top leaders, and none have had such a profound effect on me as the Arch, insisting on personally serving myself and my deputy editor cookies and tea in his office while playfully shooing away his adoring staff from the tray.

He has an overwhelming presence and his smile is almost tangible.

For anyone who has worked on peace or human rights, on social justice, Africa, poverty, or HIV – the announcement of his retirement was one we never really expected would arrive. The power and enthusiasm of the man’s spirit is so overpoweringly fresh that one forgets it flows from the body of a 79-year old. If I can laugh and dance like that in my 70s, I will be incredibly grateful.

But it is now his time – he has given enough to the rest of us.

So our way of saying thank you for adding so much to so many lives is to let you go. It is time to stop asking this man to be so much of a hero, and let him be a husband, a father and grandfather. It is their time now.

After all, he has told us all we needed to hear all too often – in lectures, in books, in sermons, in rallies and in media interviews. It is now time for us ourselves to carry forward his message of justice, compassion and forgiveness.

Now is his time to watch the Proteas, with a grandchild asleep on his lap and, as he said of his wife Leah – whom he said marrying was the best decision he made in his life – “Now I will have time to serve her hot chocolate in bed in the mornings, as any doting husband should.”

Enjoy it Arch! You and your family deserve it. Thank you for all you
have done. Our deepest gratitude always.

Editor-Robbie Stammers