The flamboyant and somewhat controversial head of the Ark Christian Church Ministries in Durban, Pastor Derech de Nysschen, 58, is dead.
He died of a heart attack at his Westville home on Monday evening, his fiancee, Yvonne Markram said on Tuesday.
"I can't believe he is gone... he fought for the poor of our city when no one else bothered. Our municipality treated him like dirt simply because he championed the rights of the destitute," Markram said.
She said that the family was arranging the funeral which is expected to take place on Friday.
De Nysschen will be remembered all right, especially as head of the Ark Christian Church Ministries which he founded more than two decades ago and which was based in a former men's hostel in Durban's Point area.
His protracted battles with the eThekwini Municipality to prevent the shutting down of the Ark frustrated many at the council and he was even successful in delaying multi-million development projects in the Point area.
Despite numerous setbacks including the Ark home electricity being switched off for unpaid electricity bills, De Nysschen insisted that his destitute folk, about 500 of them, remain.
De Nysschen ran a Christian kibbutz in the Free State before he moved to Durban in 1987, first taking over Joe's Snooker Saloon in Point Road which he later turned into a Christian Outreach Centre - a home for the homeless.
He was successful in securing R10-million in housing subsidies from the provincial government for an alternative shelter and was negotiating premises in Montclair as a new home for the Ark.
He tried relocating the Ark to Albert Park but was forced to abandon that after an outcry from local residents who said it would lead to further deterioration of the area.
De Nysschen's life came tumbling down when his high court bid for the final eviction notice to be stayed was turned down early this year.
The municipality moved in and relocated Ark residents to premises in Cato Manor and to another low-cost housing development in Welbedacht. Some 50 homeless were relocated to another home in Cape Town.
The point home was demolished to make way for the R670-million uShaka Marine Park.
But while De Nysschen was fighting for the poor, he also fought another battle - the rape charges against him.
Two months ago Durban regional court magistrate Trevor Levitt confirmed that the campaigner was guilty of raping and indecently assaulting a young relative. He faced between 10 and 15 years in jail.
De Nysschen was initially convicted in 1999 of raping and indecently assaulting the nine-year-old girl in 1996 and 1997.
On appeal, the court set aside the conviction, but ordered the magistrate to hear argument from both the state and the defence and, after assessing the new evidence, decided his guilt or innocence afresh.
Levitt said he had "anxiously and carefully" considered his finding and had found that there was no reason to disturb the (guilty) judgment.