The requiem mass for the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu began on Saturday morning in Cape Town's Anglican cathedral, a ceremony he had arranged himself and which he wanted to be sober and simple.

The ceremony is going ahead after more than 2,000 people on Thursday and Friday visited the cathedral, where Tutu's body was lying in state.

Tutu was a tireless opponent of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He coined the phrase "rainbow country" after its fall and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he hoped would turn the page on racial hatred by bringing together perpetrators and victims.