Tributes pour in for the Arch, police cordon off area near his home

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was a beacon of light for the human rights movement in SA, and globally, and his death is a huge loss, Amnesty International SA has said.

“His commitment to equality and rights for all served as a much needed moral compass during the turbulent apartheid era. Even after SA obtained freedom in 1994, the archbishop continued to be an outspoken, passionate human rights activist” Amnesty International SA executive director Shenilla Mohamed said.

“He was never afraid to call out human rights violators no matter who they were and his legacy must be honoured by continuing his work to ensure equality for all.”

Tutu, the last surviving SA laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away in Cape Town at a frail care facility on Sunday morning at the age of 90.

While police cordoned off sections near his Milnerton home, preparations were under way at the Cape Town civic centre for a briefing by members of his family, the Tutu foundation as well as the government and City of Cape Town officials.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said that the Arch’s love “transformed the lives of politicians and priests, township dwellers and world leaders”. “The world is different because of this man. Archbishop Tutu was a prophet and priest, a man of words and action, one who embodied the hope and joy that were the foundations of his life. He was a man of extraordinary personal courage and bravery: when the police burst into the Cape Town cathedral, he defied them by dancing down the aisle.”

Welby said Tutu’s vision enabled him to build the Rainbow Nation “long before anyone else, except perhaps President Mandela”.

The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said Tutu was a “living embodiment of faith in action, speaking boldly against racism, injustice, corruption, and  oppression, not just in apartheid SA but wherever in the world he saw wrongdoing, especially when it  impacted the most vulnerable and voiceless in society”.

The foundation said with political leaders in prison and exile, Tutu, as general secretary of the SA Council of Churches  and later Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, became the nation’s most outspoken prophet for justice.

“In spite  of consistent smears and vicious intimidation by the apartheid regime, he refused to be cowed. Whether from  the pulpit or in the streets, on trial or confronting cabinet ministers in the Union Buildings, he spoke with a fierce  moral and spiritual authority that faced down his adversaries and slowly won their grudging respect.”

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