26 April 2004

By Clifford Mogotsi

A MEMORIAL service has been held for Mogale City Councillor Meshack Ramogotsi Pule, who died of a heart attack while playing golf earlier this month.

The city councillor, who served on the Krugersdorp Transitional Council holding the portfolio of land development before being elected councillor for ward 4, was 63.

Fellow councillors, friends and colleagues paid tribute to the hard-working "Bra Mesh", saying that only a day before his death he was out in the field helping members of the Kagiso Youth Forum distribute pamphlets around the township.

Friend and colleague, Councillor William Modise, commended Pule's loyalty to Mogale City. "We worked together for 20 years," he said. During this time Pule campaigned for, among other things, the return of houses repossessed by the banks.

Recalling a time when Pule was involved in helping to solve a housing dispute in Kagiso, African National Congress youth league's Billy Meshoe said: "Bra Mesh said to me 'Chief, we are not going to take sides, instead we are going to identify the problem and come up with a solution'."

"He was an adviser and an honest, true leader," Modise added.

Pule was drawn to politics in the early 1970s, becoming a staunch member of the then banned South African Communist Party. Alongside his political commitments Pule worked at various companies and retired from Furn City Funiture last year.

Outside of his work, Pule spent much of his time on the golf course and it was while playing a round of golf at the Carletonville Golf Course that he had a heart attack. Golfing partner Martin Shaku spoke of Pule's last game: "On our way to Carletonville he indicated that he was only going to play nine holes, but then continued to play longer. On the 14th hole it was my turn to putt and I heard my friend complain about the heat of the sun. I called his name and in the split second that my back was turned Mesh was lying on the ground." Paramedics were called but it was too late.

A family man, Pule leaves wife Mapula and 16 children.