Ntopile Kganyago

Ntopile Marcel Kganyago (10 December 1940–17 July 2013) was a South African politician who was the Deputy Minister of Public Works between May 2004 and May 2009. The deputy president of the United Democratic Movement (UDM), he represented the party in the National Assembly of South Africa until his death in July 2013.

Before he joined the National Assembly in the April 2004 general election, Kganyago was a local councillor in his hometown, Polokwane, and served briefly as a member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. He trained as a teacher and education psychologist and worked as a civil servant and student counsellor until he entered politics full-time in 2004.

Early life and career Kganyago was born on 10 December 1940. He is from Seshego in the Northern Transvaal, part of present-day Limpopo Province. He matriculated in 1964 at Emmerantia Geldenhuys Skool in the region.

Initially trained as a carpenter, he worked briefly as a court interpreter in 1965 and 1966 before training as a teacher in Mafikeng; he was a school teacher between 1968 and 1976. He served in the deputy ministerial portfolio throughout the Third Parliament, retaining the post when Kgalema Motlanthe replaced Mbeki in a midterm presidential election. In the portfolio, Kganyago deputised Minister Stella Sigcau until her death in 2006, Minister Thoko Didiza from 2006 to 2008, and Minister Geoff Doidge from 2008 to 2009.

Kganyago was the UDM's provincial leader in Limpopo when he entered the deputy ministerial position, but over the course of the parliamentary term he became the party's national deputy president; the former deputy president, Malizole Diko, had been expelled from the party in 2005.

In the next general election in April 2009, Kganyago was re-elected to his parliamentary seat. He had been ranked second on the UDM's national party list and had also stood, unsuccessfully, as its candidate for election as Premier of Limpopo. President Motlanthe's successor, Jacob Zuma, appointed Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu to succeed him as deputy minister after the election, though he remained in the National Assembly as a backbencher.

Personal life and death After a short illness, Kganyago died in hospital in Centurion, Gauteng on 17 July 2013. He was buried in Polokwane after a funeral at the Seshego Stadium; in his eulogy, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa recounted that Kganyago was universally nicknamed "Prof" because he was "widely regarded as a pedagogue". Chief Whip Smuts Ngonyama described Kganyago was "a great linguist" with a knack for switching between different South African languages, and Pieter Groenewald of the Freedom Front said that Kganyago was better at speaking Afrikaans than he was. His nephew, Lesetja Kganyago, became the governor of the South African Reserve Bank.