S.African icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu dies at 90

Johannesburg (dpa), 26 Dec, 2021 -  South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an anti-apartheid icon described as a “champion of universal human rights,” died on Sunday. He was 90.

“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 in statement.

Tutu fought consistently for justice for South Africa’s black population under apartheid, and spoke for peace and reconciliation after the end of the white supremacist regime in the nineties.

The Nobel Prize-winner “distinguished himself as a non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights,” Ramaphosa said. “The loss of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu is immeasurable,” said the Nelson Mandela foundation of South Africa’s first black president.

“He was larger than life, and for so many in South Africa and around the world his life has been a blessing.”