“DEsmond Tutu was a religious and civic leader who always knew how to put into practice his persistence in the equality of human beings. He fought against apartheid, chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Nobel Peace Prize, acted in the name of peace, pluralism and human dignity, “stressed the Portuguese MNE, in a note published on the Twitter social network.

The Portuguese ministry also emphasizes that the Anglican bishop, along with the historic South African activist Nelson Mandela, “imagined and built a South Africa where everyone fits and everyone is equal”.

In the note, the MNE highlighted that Portugal, which has a large community in South Africa, regrets the death of Desmond Tutu and offers condolences to all South Africans.

Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop emeritus and winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his activism against the racist segregation regime of Apartheid, died today at age 90, announced the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Desmond Tutu was a religious and civic leader who always knew how to put into practice his persistence in the equality of human beings. He fought against apartheid, chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Nobel Peace Prize, acted in the name of peace, pluralism and human dignity.LUSA pic.twitter.com/ShzkUWqRCq

– N Foreigners PT (@nestrangeiro_pt) December 26, 2021

The Anglican archbishop had been weakened for several months, during which he did not speak in public, but he still fulfilled the journalists who followed each of his recent options, such as when he went to have his vaccine against a covid-19 in a hospital or when he celebrated his 90 years in October.

Desmond Tutu gained notoriety during the worst hours of the racist regime in South Africa, when he organized peaceful marches against segregation, as a priest, demanding international sanctions against the white regime in Pretoria.

With the advent of democracy 10 years later, the man who called South Africa the “rainbow nation” presided over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission created with the aim of turning the page on racial hatred, but its own hopes were quickly dashed. The black majority acquired the right to vote but remains largely poor.

After fighting apartheid, Tutu committed himself to the reconciliation of his country and the defense of human rights.

Against the hierarchy of the Anglican church, he defended homosexuals and the right to abortion, having in recent years opened up the right to assisted suicide as a new front in the fight.

Also Read: Desmond Tutu Died. Nobel Peace Prize was 90 years old