The government denied on Wednesday that it had refused the Dalai Lama a visa, as his aborted trip to South Africa turned into public relations disaster for the [Jacob] Zuma administration.

"The South African government had not denied him a visa. We did not say no to him. [His application] was being considered when he decided to cancel," international relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela said.

The Dalai Lama applied for a visa in August to attend his friend and fellow Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's birthday celebrations at the weekend.

On Tuesday, he said he was cancelling his trip because the government found it "inconvenient".

Monyela said a visa could take up to two months to process, and the Tibetan spiritual leader's initial application was incomplete, as his original passport was submitted to the South African High Commission in New Delhi only on September 20.

Monyela said: "No government will process an incomplete application."

The Office of Tibet in Pretoria said the passport was submitted as soon as the Dalai Lama returned from a visit to South America.

In the meanwhile, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe suggested a visa would have been granted.

"Of course, he has been here before. I don't see why it should be an issue at all," he was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper.

The government, which denied the Dalai Lama a visa in 2009, was spurred into comment by a scathing attack by Tutu that made international headlines.

"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," Tutu told reporters in Cape Town on Tuesday.

"Our government is worse than the apartheid government, because at least you were expecting it from the apartheid government."

Tutu, seen by many as the conscience of the nation, added: "Hey Mr Zuma, you and your government don't represent me. You represent your own interests... You are disgraceful."

The African National Congress implored Tutu to "calm down" and South Africans to suspend judgment until it had heard the government's side of the story.

But on Wednesday, Tutu kept up the charge, telling Radio 702 that South Africa's leadership had sided with a vicious oppressor by allowing itself to be intimidated by Beijing.

"And here we are siding with one of the most vicious oppressors and we are scared to say no. All the people involved in the struggle must be turning in their graves."

Fellow religious leaders joined him in criticising the government.

The Anglican bishops in the Western Cape said the government's explanations on its failure to grant the Dalai Lama a visa in time smacked of "bureaucratic obfuscation". The National Interfaith Council said it needed to state its case "honestly".

"We call on the government not to sacrifice important values that we as South Africans are known for, for international trade. The latter without morality has already given rise to soulless global system," the council said.

Local and international newspapers, in reports on Wednesday, accused the Zuma administration of bowing to pressure from China, its biggest trade partner, to refuse the Dalai Lama entry.

"This is beyond just disappointing, it suggests a lack of moral fibre and an ineptness in the foreign policy arena," the Cape Times wrote.

The Telegraph carried the headline "Another case of Chinese bullying: Why the Dalai Lama won't be at Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday".

It said the Chinese government was able to exert pressure on South Africa as the two countries recently had large economic ties, with China investing $6-billion (R48.57-billion) in South Africa's mining and construction sectors.

The furore seemed unlikely to die down fast. The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre confirmed that the archbishop had asked the Dalai Lama to hold a dialogue with him via video link-up on Saturday.

It would replace an inaugural peace lecture the Dalai Lama was scheduled to deliver at the University of the Western Cape.

"A lot depends on his preparedness to accept what would be a second-best method of communicating," the centre's CEO Dumisa Ntsebeza said.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed, but the Dalai Lama has not yet denied any request from the archbishop."