Harry leads Abbey tribute to Mandela

Harry, representing the Queen, joined senior politicians and religious leaders at the service in Westminster Abbey celebrating the life and work of Mr Mandela, who died on December 5 aged
95.

The service heard South African singing and drumming and an address to the congregation by Kgalema Motlanthe, South African deputy president, and Peter Hain MP, the veteran anti-apartheid campaigner.

In an address to the congregation, the Most Rev Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, thanked “splendid” and “amazing” anti-apartheid campaigners for their efforts in changing the “moral climate” over apartheid.

“What would have happened had Mandela died in prison as was the intention and hope of the upholders of apartheid,” he said. “I suppose most would have regarded him as no better than a terrorist – after all, persons in high positions in Britain and the US did dismiss him as such.”

Singling out the anti-apartheid movement for praise, he thanked those who had picketed South Africa House, the South African High Commission in London during the apartheid years and those who had supported a “long haired” Mr Hain in his battle to boycott South African sport in the 1970s.