Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks during a press conference about the first 20 years of freedom in South Africa at St Georges Cathedral in Cape Town on April 23,2014. Tutu today celebrated 20 years of freedom in South Africa as a "heck of an achievement", while confirming that he would not vote for the government in May 7 elections. Anglican archbishop emeritus Tutu, 82, is still regarded as a moral beacon for South Africa in the mould of the first post-apartheid president Nelson Mandela, who led the country from 1994 to 1999. AFP PHOTO/JENNIFER BRUCE (Photo credit should read JENNIFER BRUCE/AFP/Getty Images)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule, has died aged 90, the presidency said on Sunday.
“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,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
He was an outspoken critic of the country’s previous brutal system of oppression against the country’s Black majority.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his campaign of non-violent opposition to South Africa’s white minority rule.
It said: “He wanted the world to know that he had prostate cancer, and that the sooner it is detected the better the chance of managing it.”
The statement added: “Ultimately, at the age of 90, he died peacefully at the Oasis Frail Care Centre in Cape Town this morning.
“Courageous, gracious, and concerned for the welfare of others to the very end.
“As Mrs Tutu says, although he was not physically imposing, he had the inner strength of a lion.”
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