Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, died on Sunday. He was 90.
Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, following which he was hospitalised several times for treatment, Reuters reported.
He died in Cape Town’s Oasis Frail Care Centre, said Ramphela Mamphele, acting chairperson of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Twitter that the anti-apartheid icon’s death is “another chapter of bereavement” in the country’s “farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans” that have liberated the country.
“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,” the president added.
Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent resistance to the apartheid regime. He later chaired a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was established in 1996 to record the atrocities committed during the apartheid and offering rehabilitation to the victims.
Tutu had coined the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe South Africa’s diversity after Nelson Mandela became the country’s first Black president, AFP noted.
The activist has spoken on a range of topics over the last two decades like Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, LGBTQ rights, climate change and assisted death, Reuters reported.
In recent years, he castigated former President Jacob Zuma for corruption allegations related to a security upgrade to his home.
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