S. Africa anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu dies at 90

JOHANNESBURG • South African anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, described as the country's moral compass, died aged 90 at a care facility in Cape Town yesterday.

"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," President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.

"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," he added.

A tireless activist, Archbishop Emeritus Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for combating white minority rule in his country.

Famously outspoken, even after the fall of the racist apartheid regime, he never shied away from confronting South Africa's shortcomings or injustices.

He coined and popularised the term "Rainbow Nation" to describe South Africa when Mr Nelson Mandela became the country's first black president.

However, in recent years, he slammed even the ruling African National Congress - the vanguard of the fight against white minority rule - for cronyism and nepotism after apartheid ended in 1994.

In the past, he had confronted homophobia in the Anglican Church, challenged Mr Mandela over generous salaries for Cabinet ministers and stridently criticised the corruption that mushroomed under former president Jacob Zuma.

Ordained at the age of 30 and appointed archbishop in 1986, he used his position to advocate for international sanctions against apartheid, and later to lobby for rights globally.

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and underwent repeated treatment.

He had retired a year earlier to lead a harrowing journey into South Africa's brutal past, as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For 30 months, the commission lifted the lid on the horrors of apartheid.

Archbishop Emeritus Tutu was born in the small town of Klerksdorp, west of Johannesburg, on Oct 7, 1931, to a domestic worker and a schoolteacher.

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.

Archbishop Emeritus Tutu also gave his pioneering support for the assisted dying movement and did not shy away from his own end.

"I hope I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice," he said in an opinion piece in The Washington Post in 2016.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby hailed him as "a prophet and priest" while Pope Francis offered heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones.

Former United States president Barack Obama said he was a "mentor, a friend and a moral compass" who "never lost his impish sense of humour and willingness to find humanity in his adversaries".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson noted his "critical" role in the "struggle to create a new South Africa", while his deputy Dominic Raab said his adage of "Don't raise your voice, improve your argument" had "never felt more apt".

Ms Bernice King, daughter of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, said: "We are better because he was here."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS