Anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu dead

Johannesburg/New Delhi, December 26

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s revered anti-apartheid icon who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for fighting racial discrimination in the country, died on Sunday. He was 90.

Guiding light

He was a guiding light. His emphasis on human dignity and equality will be forever remembered. — PM Modi

Lost a great man

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He lived a truly meaningful life. The best tribute will be to see how we too can be of help to others. — Dalai Lama

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Tutu passed away in Cape Town in the early hours of Sunday. Tutu, who previously survived tuberculosis, had undergone a surgery for prostate cancer in 1997. He was also hospitalised several times in recent years for various ailments.

A contemporary of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, Tutu, known affectionately as “the Arch”, was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.

From the temporal to the spiritual, world leaders of all hues collectively mourned the death of the blunt-speaking, first black Bishop of Johannesburg who was widely recognised as conscience of this generation. From India, PM Narendra Modi and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans, were among those who condoled his death.

In his final years, Tutu had regretted that his dream of a “Rainbow Nation” had yet to come true, and often fell out with erstwhile allies of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party over their failures to address the poverty and inequalities that they promised to eradicate.

Just 5 ft 5 inches tall and with an infectious giggle, Tutu travelled tirelessly through the 1980s to become the face of the anti-apartheid movement abroad.

Long-time friends, Tutu and Mandela lived for a time on the same street in the South African township of Soweto, making Vilakazi Street the only one in the world to have been resident to two Nobel Peace Prize winners.

“His most characteristic quality is his readiness to take unpopular positions without fear,” Mandela once said of Tutu. Born near Johannesburg, Tutu spent most of his later life in Cape Town. — Agencies/TNS