Desmond Tutu: South Africa’s last Nobel Peace Prize laureate dies

Tutu was the last surviving South African laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize.

By / / Viral / 4 minutes of reading

In a statement, the Presidency confirmed Archbishop Desmond Tutu sighed his last breath on Sunday 26 December 2021, at the age of 90.

Desmond Tutu dies: What’s the cause of death?

Concerns of the archbishop’s health condition came on Saturday when, during a Christmas Eve sermon, Cape Town’s archbishop Dr Thabo Makgoba excused Tutu’s absence, revealing that he and his wife Leah were not well.

While no official cause of death was announced in the statement, it’s believed the 90-year-old succumbed to a lifelong battle with prostate cancer,.

The world mourns the death of Tutu

Reacting to the passing of South Africa’s last surviving South African laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Cyril Ramaphosa termed the archbishop’s transition as “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa.”

“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.

“A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world,” he said.

World leaders also took to social media in reaction to Tutu’s death. Here are some of their tributes to the archbishop and his family:

Tutu was an instrumental cog in South Africa’s transition to democracy, from the role he played in mending the wounds of a broken society at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “to the pulpits of the world’s great cathedrals and places of worship, and the prestigious setting of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the Arch distinguished himself as a non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights.”

“In his richly inspiring yet challenging life, Desmond Tutu overcame tuberculosis, the brutality of the apartheid security forces and the intransigence of successive apartheid regimes. Neither Casspirs, teargas nor security agents could intimidate him or deter him from his steadfast belief in our liberation.

“He remained true to his convictions during our democratic dispensation and maintained his vigour and vigilance as he held leadership and the burgeoning institutions of our democracy to account in his inimitable, inescapable and always fortifying way,” Ramaphosa said.