Former principal Rikhotso dies after short illness
FORMER Nwamankena Traditional Council member and Greater Giyani municipality councillor, Relax Rikhotso, died on Tuesday after a short illness.
Rikhotso was principal of Haaka Primary School in Noblehoek, Limpopo, before resigning to become a councillor in the Greater Giyani municipality.
“We are very sad because he died at the doctor’s surgery where we had taken him just after he fell ill,” said family spokesman Jan Rikhotso.
Rikhotso said the family, as well as the Nwamankena Traditional Council, relied on the former school principal’s wisdom.
Greater Giyani mayor, Pat Hlungwani, said Rikhotso was a bosom friend and a trusted colleague.
“As the head of the finance committee in our executive committee, he was a pillar of strength in the municipality, ” Hlungwani said.
Rikhotso, who was born in 1971, was the third child of Mamayila Nwa- marhambana and Nghezimani James Rikhotso.
He started school at Kutsakeni Primary in 1977 and completed Grade 12 in 1988 at Risinga High School.
Rikhotso completed his teacher’s diploma at Tivumbeni College of Education in 1993.
He later enrolled for an Advanced Certificate in Education at Northwestern University in Chicago, in the US.
At the time of his death, Rikhotso was studying towards a Masters Degree in Political Science and Transformation at the University of Free State.
He was also the secretary of the ANC in the Giyani region that was recently disbanded by the ANC’s Limpopo provincial task team,
Rikhotso is survived by his wife, Barbara, three children and a grandchild, four sisters and three brothers.
He will be buried at the Khani cemetery at Gandlanani, Limpopo, on July 20.