Archbishop Desmond Tutu Dies At 90
South African anti-aparth African Nobel Peace Prize laureate and South African anti-aparthied icon, Desmond Tutu, died on Sunday at the age 90.
The presidency in South Africa has announced the death but has given no details on the cause of death.
This online platform understands that President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tutu distinguished himself as a non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights.
“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,” Ramaphosa said.
Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his non-violent opposition to apartheid.
A decade later, he witnessed the ends of that regime and he chaired a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to unearth atrocities committed during those dark days.
Even after the end of apartheid, Tutu never wavered in his fight for a fairer South Africa and he called on the Black political elite to account with as much feistiness as he had the white Afrikaners.
Tutu was a longtime friend of Nelson Mandela and lived for a time on the same street in the South African township of Soweto, Vilakazi Street, the only one in the world to host two Nobel Peace Prize winners.
The first black Archbishop of Cape Town and bishop of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa), Tutu received many international accolades during his long and illustrious life, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984; the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986; the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987; the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999; the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Initially trained as a teacher after leaving school, he began studying theology after having taught at a high school for three years and was ordained as a priest in 1960. He continued his studies in England, culminating in a Master of Theology degree in 1966.
In 1975 he was appointed Dean of St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black person to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches.
After the fall of apartheid, Tutu headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996 after serving in that capacity for 10 years, and was made emeritus Archbishop of Cape Town, an honorary title that is unusual in the Anglican church.
In 1997, Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent successful treatment in the US. He was readmitted to hospital at various times thereafter to address the cause of recurring infections. Nevertheless, he has remained in good spirits.
Tutu is survived by Leah. They met while at college, and shared four children.
