Nobody told better prison stories than he did. And he had plenty of them. You should have heard him tell the one about Coca-Cola, often to justify why he loved the beverage so much.
He was only 18 when the apartheid state jailed him on Robben Island for attempting to leave the country and take up arms as a member of the then banned ANC's Umkhonto weSizwe.
The soft drink was one of the "pleasures" not afforded to those who were incarcerated and, over the five years of his sentence on the island, it became one of the symbols of the outside world he missed.
One hot day he and other prisoners were breaking limestone at the quarry. A sympathetic warder came to them with a smuggled-in litre of Coke.
But there were too many and each prisoner got only a bottle-lid sip.
"Chief, you can't imagine the sensation you feel on hearing that sound [the bottle makes as you open it] for the first time in years — pshhhh," he said. "The sweet taste of that thing in your mouth for the first time after such a long time," as his hand brushed his throat.PAC veteran and former Robben Islander Dikgang Moseneke, the retired deputy chief justice, shared the platform with ANC and government leaders as well the DA's Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba, whom Mamoepa regarded as a close friend.
For years Mamoepa had been one of the most recognisable faces of government and the ruling party, having served as an ANC spokesman in the early 1990s before joining the Gauteng legislature as an MPL and then moving on to become a spokesman for then deputy president Thabo Mbeki, then Jacob Zuma, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Naledi Pandor and, lately, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The Thabo Mbeki Foundation referred to Mamoepa as the dean of government communications — a recognition of the leading role he played, alongside government communications guru Joel Netshitenzhe — in shaping the government's message under successive administrations.
Mamoepa's service began long before the '90s. Born on July 12 1962, he was barely 15 when he became a community activist in Atteridgeville, Pretoria.
According to his peers, numerous girls were disappearing from the township at the time.
Mamoepa and other teens organised search parties, raiding the homes of those they suspected of being behind the disappearances.
These raids, which were mostly conducted against traditional healers whom the youth believed used the bodies of the girls for witchcraft, soon landed Mamoepa and his peers in police cells.
When he was released into the care of his parents, Mamoepa was a fully-fledged political activist.
According to a childhood friend and comrade, Titus Mafolo, "he joined the local youth group, The Funeral Brigades, who volunteered their services at funerals as a way of instilling a sense of responsibility among young people".
Following the 1976 Soweto student uprisings, Mamoepa started selling copies of progressive publications such as Staffrider magazine. The police took notice and, on a few occasions, he was harassed.He grew more militant, resolving to join MK in 1979, but was arrested with eight others before they could leave the country.
Following his release from Robben Island in 1985, Mamoepa was involved with the United Democratic Front. He became an executive committee member of the Pretoria Youth Congress and enrolled for a journalism course with the anti-apartheid South African Students Press Union.
When president PW Botha declared a state of emergency in 1985, Mamoepa was among thousands who were detained without trial.
In post-apartheid South Africa he distinguished himself as a communicator though his professionalism and innovation.
At foreign affairs, as spokesman for Dlamini-Zuma, he introduced weekly media briefings that ensured that reporters were informed of the department's activities on a regular basis.
All the briefings would be recorded and transcripts of the proceedings would be sent to all newsrooms.He was also the first to record his press statements for radio stations so that they would have soundbites to go with their news bulletins on the ministry.
He introduced similar communication techniques when he moved to home affairs and later the Presidency.
Although a political activist and a staunch ANC supporter, Mamoepa avoided becoming entangled in the power struggles that have engulfed the party since 2006.
As a result, he tended to have the respect and trust of all sides.
Even though, as Dlamini-Zuma's spokesman in 2007, he was seen as pro-Mbeki, he never had difficulty in working with the Zuma administration once Mbeki was recalled.
Ramaphosa also appears to have regarded him as a dependable spokesman over the past three years, even though he knew of Mamoepa's history with Dlamini-Zuma — his main rival in the ANC presidential race.
Mamoepa is survived by his wife, Audrey, and his five children, Olefile, Muriel, Sakhile, Ntando and Ofentse.
Master of co-operationMamoepa listened to everyone regardless of rank, says former colleague Harold Maloka
I remember Ronnie as a jovial person, interruptive but very respectful to those with whom he worked. At meetings, he would make us see that we were not merely the writers of press releases or facilitators of media interviews. We were crucial to the reputation and perceptions of the government and the country.
Knowledgeable as he was, he was ready to listen to every thought or idea irrespective of age or rank. Only once he had assessed the ideas and suggestions would he issue the 'line of march' as he called it. In some cases, he would sit at the computer himself to type the document, following which he would read it aloud for everyone to agree.
Robala ka kgotso MorwaRre, until we meet again...