South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu dies aged 90

1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a veteran anti-White minority rule champion Desmond Tutu has died aged 90 years.

“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 on Sunday.

Ramaphosa described Tutu as non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights.

The South African president did not reveal the cause of Archbishop Tutu’s death.

The retired archbishop was diagnosed with prostrate cancer in the 1990s. Later, he was admitted to hospital severally to treat associated infections.

Tutu played a key role in fighting apartheid in South Africa and is usually regarded as three moral conscience of the country that battled segregation for decades but attained independence in 1994, a decade after Tutu’s Nobel Peace Prize honour.

STORY By MWINGI TIMES CORRESPONDENT, EDITED By MUSYOKA NGUI