Anti-apartheid icon Tutu dies at 90
South African antiapartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, described as the country’s moral compass, died on Sunday aged 90, sparking an outpouring of tributes for the outspoken Nobel peace laureate.
Tutu, who had largely faded from public life in recent years, was remembered for his easy humour and characteristic smile — and above all his tireless fight against injustices of all colours.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, announcing the archbishop’s death on Sunday, called him a man of “extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid”.
“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,” he said, weeks after the death of
◗ TUTU, WHO had largely faded from public life in recent years, was remembered for his easy humour and characteristic smile — and above all his tireless fight against injustices of all colours. Barack Obama, US’ first Black leader, hailed him as ‘moral compass’.
FW de Klerk, the country’s last white president.
Former US president Barack Obama, the country’s first Black leader, hailed Tutu as a towering figure and “moral compass”.
“A universal spirit, Archbishop Tutu was grounded in the struggle for liberation and justice in his own country, but also concerned with injustice everywhere,” Obama said in a statement.
Mourners gathered at his former parish in Cape Town, St George’s Cathedral, while others massed at his home, some holding flower bouquets, according to an AFP journalist.
“If it was not for him, probably we would have been lost as a country,” said Miriam Mokwadi, a 67-year-old retired nurse, outside the cathedral.
The South African cricket team wore black armbands in his honour on the first day of the first Test against India in South Africa.