Ecumenicals and colleagues paid tribute this week to South African anti-apartheid leader the Rev. Nico Smith, who passed away during the weekend at age 81.

Hailed as an "ecumenical pioneer," Smith took an active stand against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980's, leaving the country's white Dutch Reformed Church to preach in a black township. He and his wife were the first whites the government officially permitted to live in a black township in an era where apartheid laws rigorously segregated residential areas, schools, hospitals and other public facilities.

Smith collapsed Saturday while attending a friend's birthday party in Pretoria and died before he could be taken to a hospital, according to reports.

"We pay homage to this gallant fighter and will forever treasure the contribution he made in the struggle for liberation and the building of our democracy," Jackson Mthembu, spokesperson for the African National Congress, said in a statement released on Monday.

"He fought with distinction the apartheid regime for all of us to achieve the freedoms we now enjoy."

"We will also remember him as a stalwart of our congress movement, a fearless fighter who sacrificed his well-being and forsook his privileged white status, in terms of the then apartheid racial design of the South African society, to join hands and lead the struggle for the emancipation of black people," he added.

Meanwhile, delegates at the Uniting General Council in Grand Rapids, Mich. took a moment of silence on Monday to remember Smith and his efforts.

"Dr. Nico Smith was one of those African Afrikaners who renounced their apartheid privileges and decided to suffer reproach with the black majority in South Africa," said Prof. S.T. Kgatla, moderator United Reformed Church in South Africa.

World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) General Secretary Setri Nyomi praised Smith, as, "one who has stood strong as a prophet in the time of apartheid."

Funeral services are scheduled for Thursday at a church in Pretoria that Smith helped found.