|HT|
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to racial discrimination in South Africa, has died. He was 90. Tutu died on Sunday in Cape Town, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and underwent surgery. Tutu was subsequently hospitalized several times to undergo treatment for infections and other ailments.
As South Africa’s first Black Anglican archbishop, Tutu used his international profile to lobby for sanctions against the White-minority government. From 1996 to 1998, he led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, aimed at exposing the injustices of the past.
“Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead,” Ramaphosa said.
Tutu’s brand of activism was shaped by his religious conviction, a mischievous sense of humor, and physical bravery that once led him to rush into a mob to save the life of a young woman about to be lynched on suspicion of being a police informer.
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