Amid celebrations of South Africa's 20th annual Freedom Day on Sunday, Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu issued a harsh critique about the current state of the African country.

"I'm glad that Madiba is dead. I'm glad that most of these people are no longer alive to see this," Tutu told South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, speaking about the nation's pace of change since apartheid ended two decades ago. 

"I didn't think there would be a disillusionment so soon."

Held every April 27, Freedom Day signifies the 1994 date of the nation's first all-race elections that led to Mandela become South Africa's first Black president and the end of decades of racial oppression under apartheid. 

The 82-year-old Archbishop Tutu is a social rights activist and international moral beacon who rose to global prominence as an opponent of apartheid. He confirmed last week that he would not be voting for the ruling ANC, the party that won the historic 1994 ballot, in the May 7 elections.

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