South Africa’s Desmond Tutu celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday in the cathedral where he once rallied against white rule, as the Dalai Lama said he was saddened he had not received a visa in time to attend.

St George’s Cathedral, where Tutu served as the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town until 1996, was filled with family and well-wishers from U2 frontman and campaigner Bono to Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, a close friend of Tutu, said in a video message posted online that delays with his visa forced him to call off his trip, in a move which sparked accusations that Pretoria had bowed to please China.

“There was no sort of sign, no answer about my visit, my visa,” he said in a video on the website of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he was due to speak next week. “So therefore, then there is no other alternative except withdraw with my visit. So I feel very sad.”

The widely slammed visa drama overshadowed the run-up to the three-day celebration for Mr Tutu, who furiously attacked President Jacob Zuma’s Administration for kowtowing to its biggest trade partner China, which opposes the Dalai Lama’s travels abroad. “I am warning you that we will pray as we prayed for the downfall of the apartheid government, we will pray for the downfall of a government that misrepresents us,” Mr Tutu said.