Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid icon who championed human rights in his native South Africa has died at the age of ninety. Announcing his death, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Tutu as a patriot without equal, according to an AFP report.
“Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal; a frontrunner of principle and pragmatism who gave which means to the biblical perception that faith without works is dead. A man of extraordinary mind, integrity, and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for many who had suffered oppression, injustice, and violence underneath apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people all over the world.”
Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, within the town of Klerksdorp, west of Johannesburg. He initially educated as a instructor till anger on the inferior training system created for black kids led to him enrolling in the priesthood. He has recounted up to now that during his time living in the UK, he would ask for directions unnecessarily just to hear to a white policeman name him, “Sir”.
In 1984, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his function in fighting white minority rule in South Africa and is credited with coining the term, “Rainbow Nation” as an outline for the nation when Nelson Mandela turned its first black president. However, he has additionally been a vocal critic of South Africa’s shortcomings and was not afraid to criticise the African National Congress, accusing it of nepotism.
He has additionally slammed the Anglican Church, accusing it of homophobia, and took Mandela to task for allegedly paying generous salaries to politicians in his administration. Big , he was a fierce critic of the corruption that grew under ex-leader Jacob Zuma.
Tutu also led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission because it investigated the horrors of South Africa’s apartheid previous. Ramaphosa recalls how at one fee hearing, Tutu famously broke down in tears.
“As Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission he articulated the universal outrage at the ravages of apartheid and touchingly and profoundly demonstrated the depth of which means of ubuntu, reconciliation, and forgiveness.”g