Afrikaner cleric-turned-anti-apartheid 'hero' dies

Beyers Naude, an Afrikaner cleric who spent half his life using the Bible to justify apartheid before becoming one of the anti-apartheid movement’s most important moral voices, died early today.

Naude, 89, had grown increasingly frail over the past six months and was taken to hospital last week with circulation problems blamed on his advanced age. He died at a retirement village in Johannesburg, said family spokesman and long-time friend Carl Niehaus.