City mourns death of former mayor Isaac Mogase
Ntate Mogase died on Freedom Day.
Mayor of the City of Johannesburg councillor Geoffrey Makhubo has expressed shock and sadness on the news of the death of former Johannesburg mayor Isaac Mogase on April 27.
Mogase was the first post-apartheid era mayor of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council, which is the fore-bearer of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Council.
“He was a trailblazer and was one of the first leadership of the non-racial municipalities in South Africa after the fall of apartheid,” said Makhubo.
He wore the mayoral chains between 1995 and 2000 when he handed them over to councillor Amos Masondo.
“We stand on the shoulders of giants like ntate Mogase. It is because of their hard work and dedication to the people and the development of this great city that we can thrive. Ntate Mogase was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the work we have done of stitching the City together and creating a one-city-one-tax base for a united City.
“Ntate Mogase was the doyen of the civic movement and a veteran of the freedom struggle. His activism started when he joined the ANC Youth League in Alexandra in the 1950s.”
Before becoming councillor, Mogase was an activist in Soweto and was, with the late Dr Nthato Motlana and Rev Frank Chikane, one of the first co-presidents of the Soweto Civic Association when it was founded in 1984.
In the mid-1980s, Mogase was part of the leadership of the Soweto Crisis Committee created to seek solutions to the schooling crisis that had continued in the area since the 1976 students uprisings.
“Perhaps it is befitting that in keeping with his commitment as a life-long activist for freedom, councillor Mogase chose to depart on the 27th anniversary of the freedom he had actively participated in and sacrificed his life to attain. We send our most sincere condolences to his family, his community and the ANC on the loss of this stalwart,” said Makhubo.
