Tutu’s a ‘Phony’ as Black Leader, Falwell Charges

Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, fresh from a meeting with South African President Pieter W. Botha, today said that Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu was “a phony as far as representing” blacks.

Falwell arrived at Kennedy International Airport pledging to begin a national campaign to encourage continued investments in South Africa’s apartheid regime.

He also charged that Tutu, the black religious leader who has spoken out against his country’s white-minority government, does not truly represent the black people of South Africa.

Unlike Tutu, Falwell charged, the people of South Africa do not want Americans to divest or impose sanctions on the racially segregated nation. He said he formed his opinion of national sentiment by talking to dozens of South Africans--both government officials and people in the streets.