Archbishop Desmond Tutu announces retirement

"I have done as much as I can and need time to do things I have really wanted to do. I do want a little more quiet," the Nobel laureate told a press conference at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town.

"On October 7, I turn 79 years old, and withdraw from public life," he said.

Tutu will continue to work with Mandela's organisation The Elders  - world leaders who support peace building activities around the world.

"Instead of growing old gracefully, at home with my family - reading and writing and praying and thinking - too much of my time has been spent at airports and in hotels," he added.

"The time has now come to slow down, to sip Rooibos (redbush) tea with my beloved wife in the afternoons, to watch cricket, to travel to visit my children and grandchildren, rather than to conferences and conventions and university campuses.

"As Madiba said on his retirement: 'Don't call me; I'll call you.'" Tutu added, calling Nelson Mandela by his clan name.

Tutu said he looked forward to having time to dote on his wife Leah. They married in 1955 and have four children. "Marrying Leah was the best decision I made in my life," he said. "Now I will have the time to serve her hot chocolate in bed in the mornings, as any
doting husband should."

Adam Habib, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Advancement at South Africa's University of Johannesburg told RFI's Laura Angela Bagnetto that Tutu will be a hard act to follow - in South Africa and internationally.

"Tutu represented a kind of beacon to civilisation," Habib said. "He said we could have a world where Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew could come together in ways that transcended religious backgrounds."

Habib continued: "Whether you're Chilean or French, American or Iraqi, [Tutu taught] that you could live together - in a world where that doesn't exist."

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Archbishop Tutu retires Listen (02:24)     22/07/2010 by Laura Angela Bagnetto