(Reuters) -Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule, died on Sunday aged 90, the presidency said.
Following are some reactions to his death.
PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA
“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.
“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.”
THABO MAKGOBA, ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE TOWN
“Desmond Tutu’s legacy is moral strength, moral courage and clarity. He felt with the people. In public and alone, he cried because he felt people’s pain. And he laughed – no, not just laughed, he cackled with delight when he shared their joy.”
NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION
“His contributions to struggles against injustice, locally and globally, are matched only by the depth of his thinking about the making of liberatory futures for human societies. He was an extraordinary human being. A thinker. A leader. A shepherd.”
BASIM NAEEM, SENIOR OFFICIAL WITH PALESTINIAN ISLAMIST MILITANT GROUP HAMAS, TOLD REUTERS
“Our Palestinian people lost a strong supporter of their march towards freedom and independence. Father Desmond Tutu spent his entire life struggling against racism and defending human rights and especially on the Palestinian land.”
(Reporting by South Africa bureau; additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
