The South African archbishop
Desmond Tutu
, who was
one of the symbols of the resistance against apartheid
and later became the promoter of reconciliation,
died
.
This was announced by the presidency of South Africa.
Tutu, 90, Anglican archbishop, won the 1984
Nobel Peace Prize
as a symbol of the nonviolent struggle against the racist regime. But after the end of apartheid, after
Nelson Mandela
was elected president of the new South Africa, Tutu conceived and chaired the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (TRC), created in 1995, which in a painful and dramatic process of pacification between the two sides of South African society exposed the truth about the atrocities committed during the decades of repression by whites.
Forgiveness was granted to those who, among those responsible for those atrocities committed, had fully confessed: a form of moral reparation also towards the families of the victims.
In announcing the disappearance of Reverend Tutu, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed, "on behalf of all South Africans, profound sadness at the death on Sunday of an essential figure in the country's history."
