Alfred Kumalo was courageous and honest: DA

World-renowned photographer Alfred Kumalo had the courage to honestly reflect the realities of life in South Africa, the DA said on Monday.

Kumalo, 82, died of renal failure in a Johannesburg hospital on Sunday.

"His photos provide a visual history of South Africa's struggle against the brutal apartheid regime and remind us of the importance of an independent media in exposing the excesses of the state," Democratic Alliance spokesman Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

Despite the violent and autocratic efforts of the apartheid state to suppress his reflection of the realities in the country, Kumalo had courageously continued with his work.

"His talent was recognised at home and abroad, always providing an example of South African excellence and integrity," said Maimane.

Kumalo matriculated from the Wilberforce Institute, in Evaton, and began his working career as a journalist and photographer at Bantu World, in Johannesburg, in 1951. He joined the Golden City Post as a permanent staffer in 1956.

He covered the 1976 student uprising, the State of Emergency during the 1980s, the unbanning of the liberation movements and the inauguration of South Africa's first democratic government among a host of events in a career spanning more than 50 years.

At the time of his death, Kumalo still worked professionally and ran a professional photographic school in Diepkloof, despite his age.