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A glorious and happy birthday to Mama Leah Tutu

The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation wishes Mama Leah Tutu as bright and glorious a birthday today, 14 October 2021, as the rich, glorious yellow hue of the flower that is named after her.

The Rosa Leah Tutu is a fragrant, resilient and abundantly flowering shrub rose with yellow, perfumed petals. It was named as a tribute to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s life-long partner, Nomalizo Leah Tutu, who celebrates her 88th birthday today, one week after Archbishop Tutu turned 90 years old on 7 October 2021.

In October 2006, a large deep-red rose was named the Desmond Tutu Sunbelt rose by Ludwig Taschner in recognition of the Archbishop’s lifelong work for peace in South Africa.

The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation wishes both its founders continued fulfilling and long lives: may the tale of our two bright roses bloom abundantly.

Piyushi Kotecha

CEO: Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation