There’s an air of agitation about Balfour mayor MABALANE “LEFTY” TSOTETSI these days. He seems unable to relax in his office - and neither can anyone else, he says. “I don’t know what made him come here,” he says, “but everybody in this building has become renewed, energised.”
He’s talking of the surprise visit by President Jacob Zuma that put this tiny, troubled Mpumalanga town on the map and cast an unwelcome spotlight on its absent mayor.
Lefty hit the headlines for being out of the office when Zuma dropped in. Lefty says he was sick but he’ll always be remembered as the guy the president called back to work.
But he’s right: there is an air of energy about the place. In the parking lot, past the vandalised Voortrekker monument, there are BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes that have ferried MECs from Nelspruit. “Suddenly Balfour is a priority,” a municipal official says.
Lefty is so busy we can’t see him.
In nearby Siyathemba township the rocks residents used to block roads and the remains of burnt tyres recall their violent protests at the lack of service delivery. It’s quiet here now as residents wait to see if Zuma’s visit will make a difference.
“He has made promises we will keep him to,” community leader David Mosuwe says.
Later we get to see the mayor who was the target of residents’ unhappiness. He says it wasn’t his fault. “Central government needs to sort out the people’s problems.”
Lefty says he’s still ill. “I have been ill for three months. But now if I take a day off what will it look like? What will people say?”
He knows he hasn’t emerged from news reports bathed in glory but it’s not fair, he insists. He had big plans to improve people’s lives. “We have spoken about building a youth centre. The problem is money, especially after the municipal unions won a pay increase. Where are we going to find the money now?”
