Archbishop Desmond Tutu dead at 90
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died at the age of 90, Dr Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has announced.
The anti-apartheid icon died on Sunday morning.
“It is with great sadness that I have to announce that our dearly beloved Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town – and the 1984 Nobel Peace laureate – Desmond Mpilo Tutu died a short while ago at the age of 90,” Makgoba announced in a statement.
“While we mourn his passing, as Christians and people of faith we must also celebrate the life of a deeply spiritual person whose alpha and omega – his starting point and his ending point – was his relationship with our Creator. He took God, God's purpose and God's creation deadly seriously. Prayer, the Scriptures and his ministry to the people God entrusted to his care were at the heart of his life.”
Makgoba said Tutu’s faith meant he feared nobody and called out wrong when he saw it.
“He believed totally that each one of us is made in the image of God and ought to be treated as such by others. This belief was not reached through celebral contemplation; it arose from his faith and was held with a deeply-felt passion. He wanted every human being on earth to experience the freedom, the peace and the joy that all of us could enjoy if we truly respected one another as people created in the image of God.”
The church will plan his funeral and other memorial services together with government and the City of Cape Town.
Details of these events, to be held under South Africa's Covid regulations, will be announced later.
