'Champion of universal human rights' Desmond Tutu dies aged 90

Tutu, described by foreign observers and his countrymen as the moral conscience of his nation, died in Cape Town on St Stephen's Day

Desmond Tutu, the cleric and social activist who was giant of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has died aged 90.

Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights, has died aged 90.

Announcing the death, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was “another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa”.

An uncompromising foe of apartheid in South Africa, Tutu worked tirelessly and peacefully for its downfall.

The buoyant, blunt-spoken clergyman used his pulpit as the first black bishop of Johannesburg and later Archbishop of Cape Town as well as frequent public demonstrations to galvanise public opinion against racial inequity both at home and globally.

Mr Ramaphosa added: “From the pavements of resistance in South Africa 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.” 

An uncompromising foe of apartheid in South Africa, Tutu worked tirelessly and peacefully for its downfall. Picture: AP

Tutu had been treated in hospital several times since 2015, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997.

In recent years, he and his wife Leah lived in a retirement community outside Cape Town.

Throughout the 1980s – when South Africa was gripped by anti-apartheid violence and a state of emergency giving police and the military sweeping powers – Tutu was one of the most prominent black people able to speak out against abuses.

A lively wit lightened his hard-hitting messages and warmed otherwise grim protests, funerals and marches.

Short, plucky, tenacious, he was a formidable force, and apartheid leaders learned not to discount his canny talent for quoting apt scriptures to harness righteous support for change.

The Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 highlighted his stature as one of the world’s most effective champions for human rights, a responsibility he took seriously for the rest of his life.

With the end of apartheid and South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, Tutu celebrated the country’s multi-racial society, calling it a “rainbow nation” – a phrase that captured the heady optimism of the moment.

In 1984, 10 Irish workers in Dunnes Stores staged a strike over handling goods from South Africa during the apartheid regime.

Mary Manning was one of the main strikers and as it went on, she and her colleagues became educated on apartheid.

In 1985, on his way to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, the strikers were invited to meet Tutu in London.

The Government banned the import of Sough African goods in 1987 as a result of public pressure.

The Archbishop of Armagh said that at a time when people have become wary of those who exercise political power, Tutu’s death comes “with an intensified sense of loss”.

Most Revd John McDowell said:

"He brought many gifts to embodying and fulfilling this vocation, perhaps the greatest of which was courage in the face of an implacable enemy in the form of apartheid; in confronting international indifference and avoidance of moral imperatives; in facing down the violence of the mob; in working through the painful implications of the overlapping claims of truth and justice.

“Desmond Tutu was both a herald and a bringer of justice and in his long life there were many who wished to extinguish the light which he brought into a dark and disordered world.

“But it was not overcome, and the light of his memory will remain as a beacon of hope to the oppressed, the cheerless and the weary everywhere.”

Most Revd Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin, praised Tutu’s “consistent moral stance for justice” adding that his death will bring sadness “to countless people worldwide”.

He stated: “His consistent moral stance for justice and equality in a South Africa that made multiple transitions in his lifetime is something he shared with personal generosity on the international stage.

“He became synonymous with the needs and the respect for the marginalized, the rejected and the forgotten by his strong voice and strategic coherence.”

Nicknamed “the Arch”, Tutu was diminutive, with an impish sense of humour, but became a towering figure in his nation’s history, comparable to fellow Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela, a prisoner during white rule who became South Africa’s first black president.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, right, greets President Nelson Mandela at a service in Cape Town in 1996, held to celebrate the end of Tutu's tenure as leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa. File picture: AP

Tutu and Mandela shared a commitment to building a better, more equal South Africa.

In 1990, after 27 years in prison, Mandela spent his first night of freedom at Tutu’s residence in Cape Town. Later, Mandela called Tutu “the people’s archbishop”.

After becoming president in 1994, Mandela appointed Tutu to be chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which uncovered the abuses of the apartheid system.

Tutu campaigned internationally for human rights, especially LGBT rights and same-sex marriage.

“I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this,” he said in 2013, launching a campaign for LGBT rights in Cape Town.

“I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say, ‘Sorry, I would much rather go to the other place.’” Tutu said he was “as passionate about this campaign (for LGBT rights) as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level”.