Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu paid a warm tribute to Albertina Sisulu on Friday in response to news of her death.
"She truly was a special gift to the nation. We are much poorer without her. There will be an extra bright star in the heavens tonight," Tutu stated, adding that the former parliamentarian and senior member of the ANC was the epitomy of grace and humanity even in the darkest days of apartheid.
"Her husband was imprisoned for more than 20 years, her children were harassed and detained, and she was herself banned for many, many years,” Tutu added as reported in TimesLive.co.za.
"But try as they might they could not break her spirit, they could not make her bitter, they could not defeat her love."
Tutu said it was people like Sisulu who had made the new South Africa possible.
"[It is people like Sisulu] who kept the home fires burning, who calmly and resolutely demonstrated by example that we are all members of one family, God's family - regardless of adversity or what the National Party said," he emphasised.
(Image from dunyabulteni.net).