Johannesburg- Elegant and deferential, the outgoing executive mayor of Midvaal, Bongani Baloyi, goes in peace when his term ends after the local government elections on November 1.
Going in peace these days for a councillor is a rare feat that is impossible to imagine in a country in which many councillors have made it their duty to run to the ground municipalities or metros they are constitutionally obliged to run efficiently.
The world may not see it, or choose to switch off because he is a DA member, a party often described as “a white party” in a country that is racially obsessed, thanks to the long apartheid years in which social separation was lauded, encouraged and legislated by a long list of National Party leaders, including Dr Hendrik Verwoerd.
Verwoerd told his followers that “blacks should never be shown the greener pastures of education, they should know their station in life is to be hewers of wood and drawers of water”. Baloyi, by his showing – seven consecutive audits since 2013 – has defied Verwoerd’s racist rants.
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