Norm MacRitchie is a well known figure in Oamaru.

He is a invalid pensioner who formerly worked as a bus driver and truck driver. He has served as a union delegate.

He is active in his community helping other people and campaigning on local issues.

He was born in Wellington in 1950 and he has lived in South Africa during the years of apartheid which he opposed.

From Waitaki Herald, 12 December 2007:

Norm MacRitchie is a local Oamaru identity who can often be seen
talking to people on the street or helping people who are a little
worse off than him.

Norm has had an interesting life.

Taken by his father to South Africa when he was 16, Norm knows what it
is to experience the Apartheid system.

“My Dad was always a union organiser and delegate,” Norm said.

“He was a very good wage negotiator and he believed everyone was equal
and people deserved a fair wage for a day’s hard labour. He was
blacklisted after a strike in Southland.”

“From there he went to Wellington and worked as a carpenter, then
worked for a cab company where he was a union delegate. From there he
went to South Africa. Unfortunately he took his principles with him
and was warned by the South African secret police to leave. I couldn’t
live under that system so I left before he did and went to Australia. “

Norm met up with his father in Australia and worked for some years
driving buses in Melbourne. He also did a stint as a garbage collector.

His father was worried about his mother, still in New Zealand, so Norm
headed back, working for New Zealand Post and then at the freezing
works at Pukueri.

A chip off the old block, Norm continued in his father’s footsteps as
a union delegate. Ending up in Oamaru, he still looks after his mother
who is in the Harbour View Rest Home.

Norm is an Alliance stalwart and laughs when talking about the party.

“A lot of people give me stick and I’m continually getting comments
like, that mob, do they still exist. But I like the principles of
democracy and looking after people who may not be able to help
themselves. I’m on a benefit now but I still do community work.”

“I still believe in doing a good days work for a fair pay packet.”

Mobile: 0277228300
Phone: 034370824
Email: norman.macritchie@alliance.org.nz