Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize-winning racial justice activist, has died at the age of 90.
President Cyril Ramaphosa issued a statement expressing his "profound sadness" at the anti-apartheid veteran and LGBTQI+ advocate's death on Sunday.
"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," Mr Ramaphosa said, in a statement issued by Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele.
"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."
An uncompromising foe of apartheid, South Africa's brutal regime of oppression again the Black majority, Archbishop Tutu worked tirelessly, though non-violently, 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.
"As chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission he articulated the universal outrage at the ravages of apartheid and touchingly and profoundly demonstrated the depth of meaning of ubuntu, reconciliation and forgiveness," Mr Ramaphosa said, of the retired Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.
"He placed his extensive academic achievements at the service of our struggle and at the service of the cause for social and economic justice the world over.
"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."
