In a televised news conference in Cape Town on Thursday, the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu announced his intention to retire from public life when he turns 79 in October.
"The time has now come to slow down, to sip rooibos tea with my beloved wife in the afternoons, to watch cricket and rugby and soccer and tennis, to travel to visit my children and grandchildren, rather than to conferences and conventions and university campuses," he said.
Tutu said he would be stepping down from several responbilities but would continue working with a council of statesmen known as The Elders. The Nobel peace laureate winner stressed that he would no longer be available for media interviews.
"As Madiba said on his retirement: 'Don't call me, I'll call you'," he said.
Tutu has had a long and distinguished career as a church cleric and served as the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town between 1986 and 1996. Tutu was a central figure in the fight against apartheid once famously saying:
“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
Tutu won his Nobel peace prize in 1984 and also chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Tutu has courageously challenged the present ANC led government wherever he has perceived situations of injustice or corruption, which has only served to expand the immense respect in which he is held world-wide.