Heading for Tutu's party (From Stroud News and Journal)

Heading for Tutu's party

A COUPLE from Stroud have been invited to Desmond Tutu's golden wedding celebration.

Brian and Carole Oosthuysen from Kingscourt said it took them "about half a second" to reply to an email from the former Archbishop of Cape Town and his wife, Leah, asking them to attend the event on June 2.

Mr Oosthuysen said: "We don't really have the money for trips like this but we both agreed that the expense would be worth it. When we emailed him to accept the invitation we got one back which started 'Yippee!'."

Brian and Archbishop Tutu met in 1962 while studying at King's College in London. As the only South Africans in their year studying theology, they quickly became friends.

Over the years they have stayed in touch, but have met on only a few occasions, partly because Mr and Mrs Oosthuysen refused to go to South Africa while an Apartheid-led government was in office.

Mr and Mrs Oosthuysen last saw Archbishop Tutu in 1997, when they took eight friends from Stroud on a visit to South Africa.

Mr Oosthuysen said: "I phoned him to ask him if I could take him out for dinner in a restaurant.

"He said he didn't like going to restaurants because everyone recognised him. He said, 'why not come over to my house instead?'"

The couple's friends were astonished to find themselves being cooked a traditional South African dinner by the Nobel Prize winner's wife.

Mr Oosthuysen said: "My friends were knocked out by being invited to his house. One of the blokes said it was the best evening of his life.

"He is an absolutely delightful guy, a one-off. His wife is just as lovely."

Mr and Mrs Oosthuysen will be in South Africa for two weeks.

After spending several days in Soweto celebrating with Desmond and Leah they will travel to the Eastern Cape, where Brian was born, to continue researching their family tree.