Toby Shapshak
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has died, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday.
The 90-year-old winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was an “iconic spiritual leader, anti-apartheid activist and global human rights campaigner,” Ramaphosa said.
Tutu was a powerful voice against the evils of Apartheid and he rallied the international community to impose sanctions against the racist regime.
He famously coined the phrase “Rainbow Nation” to describe the country after the dawn of democracy which elected Nelson Mandela as the first black president. He and Mandela remained close for the rest of their lives.
Having battled with cancer for decades, Tutu passed away in Cape Town – fitting perhaps after spending Christmas day with his family. He was briefly admitted to hospital early this year.
“Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead,” Ramaphosa said in a statement.
“A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world.”
Born in Klerksdorp in 1931, he was the first black person to be both the Bishop of Johannesburg (for two years) and the Archbishop of Cape Town, from 1986 for a decade.
The feisty and irrepressible Tutu was a thorn in the Apartheid regime and was a strident activist for his whole life.
He was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his activism against the brutal Apartheid government.
Photo: Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation