Ex-mayor Ramaremela an excellent councillor
Qualified teacher dedicated his life to active politics
Born: February 2 1967 Died: June 2 Funeral: Tomorrow at Itireleng in the Sekgosese area, Limpopo, starting at 7am
Burial: At the local cemetery
The late former mayor of the Greater Letaba municipality in Limpopo, Patrick Ntshiene Ramaremela, was a councillor par excellence.
He was a resourceful and well-travelled ANC councillor who was also regarded as a local government institution par excellence.
Ramaremela, 51, died at a Pretoria hospital on Monday morning after a short illness. He was busy with funeral arrangements for his sister at the time of his death.
Born in February 1967, Sizwe, as Ramaremela was affectionately known in political circles, was the fifth child of Manko Johannes and Moyahabo Tabudi Ramaremela.
His formative years of schooling were at Sebelagolo Primary School and later Senwamokgope Higher Primary School. He proceeded to Maruatona High School and later to Lephai High, where he matriculated.
Ramaremela enrolled for a teaching diploma at the erstwhile Modjadji College of Education in Limpopo.
He cut his political teeth at the college, where he burnt the candle at both ends by juggling with participation in student politics and reading for his teaching diploma, which he finished in the prescribed period.
His political outlook was heavily influenced by the brutal and barbaric assault meted out to forebears of the college’s student activists such as Ngoako Ramalepe.
Ramaremela was SRC president at the college and also part of the South African Students Congress leadership.
Upon his completion of the teaching diploma, Ramaremela and others battled to find jobs despite a shortage of teachers.
Ramaremela was the convenor of the unemployed teachers’ forum in the area that negotiated with the government to create teaching posts. During local government elections in 1995 he was elected a ward councillor and chairman/mayor of Mooketsi/Sekgosese transitional local council. Between 2003 and 2006 he served as mayor of the Greater Letaba municipality.
After the 2006 local government elections he became speaker of the same municipality.
He served an unbroken 10 years as a member of the mayoral committee in the Mopani district municipality until the 2016 municipal elections.
From 2016 until his death, Ramaremela was no longer a councillor but the South African Local Government Association in Limpopo continued to enlist his services for different roles that included capacity building.
A long-time member of the ANC, Ramaremela served it in various capacities. From 2015 to 2017, he was deputy chairman of the Pharephare branch. At the time of his death he was a branch executive committee member.
Ramaremela is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter as well as two siblings.
He will be buried at his home village of Itireleng tomorrow.