Desmond Tutu, South Africa's moral compass, dies age 90
South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, described as the country's moral compass, died on Sunday aged 90, President Cyril Ramaphosa said, Reuters reports.
"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," he said in a statement.
A tireless activist, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for combatting white minority rule in his country.
Famously outspoken, even after the fall of the racist apartheid regime, Tutu never shied away from confronting South Africa's shortcomings or injustices.
Born in the small town of Klerksdorp, west of Johannesburg, on October 7, 1931, Tutu was the son of a domestic worker and a school teacher.
Following in his father's footsteps, he trained as a teacher before anger at the inferior education system set up for black children prompted him to become a priest.
He lived for a while in Britain, where, he recalled, he would needlessly ask for directions just to be called "Sir" by a white policeman.
Tutu believed firmly in the reconciliation of black and white South Africans.
"I am walking on clouds. It is an incredible feeling, like falling in love. We South Africans are going to be the Rainbow People of the world," he said in 1994.
But post-apartheid South Africa increasingly became a source of his despair, as the high hopes of the early days of democracy gave way to disillusionment over violence, inequality and graft.
Never a member of the ANC, Tutu said in 2013 that he would no longer vote for the party, though President Cyril Ramaphosa -- an old friend -- re-built bridges after coming to power in 2018.
Tutu made a rare public appearance in May 2021 to receive his vaccine for Covid-19. He appeared outside of the hospital in a wheelchair, and waved but did not speak.
He married his wife Leah in 1955. They had four children.
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