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The ANCVL learnt with shock and heavy hearts that our struggle veteran and former ANCVL Provincial
Secretary Cde Rashaka Frank Ratshitanga is no more. The ANCVL in Limpopo is saddened to announce
the passing of Cde Ratshiṱanga who passed on during the early hours on the 28 November 2022, after
a long battle against prostate cancer.

Cde Ratshitanga who was 89 years of age at the time of his passing has served the ANC, the ANCVL
and the people of South Africa with unquestionable discipline, commitment and love. Cde Ratshitanga
was born on the 3rd August 1933 in Venda. As a black child, the young Rashaka had no way of
escaping the hardships, the oppression and the indignities that were inflicted on the majority of black
South Africans.

Like most of his contemporaries, he left his home in search of work in Johannesburg where he worked
at the South African Railways and Harbours from 1958 to 1960. Having personally experienced the
hardship faced by most black workers, the young Ratshitanga took a hard and dangerous decision to
become actively involved in organising his fellow workers to become better organised in their fight
for their rights. His political activism was not limited to the working class struggle. Cde Ratshitanga’s
involvement in the struggle against the notorious apartheid regime was further sharpened when he
joined the African National Congress in 1958, as an executive member of the Vendaland Guide
Association, a regional anti-apartheid organisation, which was the key organisation in the ANC’s
underground activities and its Rural Political Programme in the then far-Northern Transvaal
(Limpopo).

Full Statement Attached

Issued by The ANCVL