The South African presidency announced today, Sunday, the death of the country’s archbishop, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, and one of the leaders in the struggle to end white minority rule for 90 years.
“The passing away of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu opens another chapter of grief in our nation’s farewell to a generation of great men who left us liberated South Africa,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
“Desmond” Tutu was the voice of blacks in South Africa in the struggle against the white apartheid regime that was toppled by democracy nearly 30 years ago, and he has not spoken much in public in recent years, as he suffered from cancer for more than twenty years, and was recently hospitalized due to his injury with inflammation.
The late bishop was a tireless defender of human rights and close to Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, and was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize for his commitment against apartheid, which was abolished in 1994.
