By Max Burman -
NBC News
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who helped lead the movement that ended the dominance of the white minority in South Africa, has died at the age of 90, the country's president reported Sunday.
"The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of mourning in our nation's farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have left us a liberated South Africa," President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement early Sunday.
Desmond Tutu was a patriot like no other;
a leader of principle and pragmatism who
gave meaning to the biblical idea that faith without works is dead ”
, he added.
Archbishop emeritus and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, in Cape Town on April 27, 2019.Rodger Bosch / AFP - Getty Images
Tutu gained notoriety thanks to his work as a human rights defender.
In 1984 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless and non-violent fight against apartheid in South Africa,
and subsequently played a key role in the downfall of segregationist politics.
[Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov win the Nobel Peace Prize for their defense of freedom of expression]
In the late 1990s he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was hospitalized several times in recent years to treat the infections associated with his treatment.
"Finally, at the age of 90, she passed away peacefully at Cape Town's Oasis Fragile Care Center this morning," said Dr Ramphela Mamphele in a statement on behalf of the Tutu family.
He did not give details on the cause of death.
The Anglican cleric used the pulpit to preach and encourage public opinion against the injustice suffered by the black majority of South Africa.
Tutu was the first black bishop of Johannesburg and later the first black archbishop of Cape Town, and
was a prominent activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights,
not only in South Africa but around the world.
[The UN World Food Program wins the Nobel Peace Prize "for its efforts to combat hunger in the world"]
After the fall of the apartheid regime and with Nelson Mandela leading the country as the first black president, Tutu led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that exposed the terrible truths of the war against white rule.
Mandela asked Tutu to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created to listen to, register and, in some cases, amnesty perpetrators of human rights violations under apartheid.WALTER DHLADHLA / AFP / Getty Images
Expressive and exuberant, Tutu never wavered in his fight for a fairer South Africa, and held the black leaders of the country's new democracy to account with equal vehemence.
In his later years, he regretted that his dream of a "Rainbow Nation" had not yet come true.
Tutu largely retired from public life in 2010 but never stopped speaking his mind.
His death comes just over a month after the death of FW de Klerk, the country's last apartheid president.
