South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, has died aged 90. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who helped end apartheid in South Africa, passed away in Cape Town.
He had been suffering from prostate cancer.
His death was confirmed in a statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa expressed his sadness, saying Tutu was a patriot without equal.
“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” the President said.
Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his role as a unifying leader in the campaign to end apartheid.
Ramaphosa further described him as and a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without work is dead.
“A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity, and invincibility against the forces of apartheid,” he said
The South African Head of State said Tutu was tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice, and violence under apartheid and the oppressed and downtrodden people around the world.
