There's a softer side to Buffalo City Metro’s new mayor, evident in his breaking down when asked to describe his worst moment as a politician. He confessed it was when he heard that former SACP leader Chris Hani had died.
The South African Communist Party leader was assassinated on April 10 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a suburb of Boksburg. “To be honest, I still haven’t come to terms with how Hani died,” he told the Daily Dispatch
Mtsi’s kind heart was again exposed when he made a public apology to both Gonubie and Quigney residents for the delays experienced in the reconstruction of both the Gonubie Main Road and Fleet Street, delays which have negatively affected property values and business in both suburbs.
He also gets overwhelmed when his family is unable to reach consensus on something. “I don’t sleep well at home knowing that my family don’t agree. That’s me,” he explained.
His family nickname is Scooter, given to him by his grandfather simply because a family member bought a motorbike a day before his birthday, 64 years ago.
Mtsi’s tough upbringing probably has a lot to do with the empathy he brings to his position as mayor.
He grew up in Ncerha Village just outside East London. He and his peers walked more than 2.5km to the nearest school, Hebron Lower Primary. He relocated to Mdantsane’s NU1 to study beyond lower primary, as there were no high schools in Ncera Village at the time.
It was in Mdantsane that Scooter was taught the ins and outs of being “a township fellow”, he recalled.
“Of course township life brought a number of new experiences. One had to acclimatise to the new culture. Here we spoke another language – tsotsi taal. We now called boys amajita, ama-outi”.
It was also on Mdantsane’s dusty streets that Mtsi donned his very first pair of boxing gloves – plastic milk bottles.
“In villages we played stick fighting, but in Mdantsane I learnt how to use milk boxes as boxing gloves, and how to fight with them,” he said, laughing.
From there on boxing and karate became his preferred sport at school instead of rugby, which he found to be too physical.
He admitted: “Given a chance, I would not have played sport because my interest was in reading. Sport was a side issue.”
It was at Gcisa Commercial High School where this father of three cut his teeth in politics after being recruited to join a local boxing club only to realise it was a cover for a political school. This is where they gathered to talk about the student uprisings at Sharpeville, and Langa township in 1976, and the need to support such action.
He was doing Standard 9 (Grade 11) when he was expelled for attending “an illegal gathering” with 19 other pupils.
Even after his dismissal from school, he continued his involvement in politics through his boxing club, Yakooza.
His underground activism opened new avenues for him. When he passed matric, he got an offer to join Mercedes-Benz, then called CDA.
Mtsi was part of the MBSA team of employees who voluntarily offered their labour to build the late Nelson Mandela his very first Mercedes-Benz.
He is also one of the co-founders of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, a union he later led as its shop steward.
He joined both the ANC and the South African Communist Party in 1990, and was NU10’s ANC branch chairman until 1992.
He has been an ANC member of the provincial legislature (MPL) since 1999, until he was recalled last month and deployed to BCM as mayor.
It’s the time he spends with his wife, Nolundi and their three children aged 29, 21 and 19, that puts the spark in Mtsi’s life, he admits.
“They always insist that we go out to watch movies, enjoy a meal at a restaurant for our birthday celebrations. I don’t always remember our birthdays, but they remind me every time, and such gatherings have much sentimental value,” Mtsi said.
Despite his hectic schedule, he still finds time for another great love – jazz. “I like jazz, even Brook Benton. I still go to jazz shows. I’m becoming passionate about the annual Cape Town Jazz Festival. It is a passion I share with my wife, when I at times get lazy about going, she persuades me.”
Mtsi also used to like listening to Brenda Fassie and Yvonne Chaka-Chaka. Their music reminds him of his youth, bunking school to watch an action movie at Empolweni in Mdantsane, or else at the Victory bioscope in downtown East London.
At that time, he said, the most popular movies were what were described as “Westerns”.
“We enjoyed movies with Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, Bud Spencer or Terence Hill. They were as famous because of the violence associated with them.
“We used to bunk classes and go watch films on Wednesday afternoons,” he said, with a chuckle.
Can Alfred Mtsi save Buffalo City?
The South African Communist Party leader was assassinated on April 10 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a suburb of Boksburg. “To be honest, I still haven’t come to terms with how Hani died,” he told the Daily Dispatch
Mtsi’s kind heart was again exposed when he made a public apology to both Gonubie and Quigney residents for the delays experienced in the reconstruction of both the Gonubie Main Road and Fleet Street, delays which have negatively affected property values and business in both suburbs.
He also gets overwhelmed when his family is unable to reach consensus on something. “I don’t sleep well at home knowing that my family don’t agree. That’s me,” he explained.
His family nickname is Scooter, given to him by his grandfather simply because a family member bought a motorbike a day before his birthday, 64 years ago.
Mtsi’s tough upbringing probably has a lot to do with the empathy he brings to his position as mayor.
He grew up in Ncerha Village just outside East London. He and his peers walked more than 2.5km to the nearest school, Hebron Lower Primary. He relocated to Mdantsane’s NU1 to study beyond lower primary, as there were no high schools in Ncera Village at the time.
It was in Mdantsane that Scooter was taught the ins and outs of being “a township fellow”, he recalled.
“Of course township life brought a number of new experiences. One had to acclimatise to the new culture. Here we spoke another language – tsotsi taal. We now called boys amajita, ama-outi”.
It was also on Mdantsane’s dusty streets that Mtsi donned his very first pair of boxing gloves – plastic milk bottles.
“In villages we played stick fighting, but in Mdantsane I learnt how to use milk boxes as boxing gloves, and how to fight with them,” he said, laughing.
From there on boxing and karate became his preferred sport at school instead of rugby, which he found to be too physical.
He admitted: “Given a chance, I would not have played sport because my interest was in reading. Sport was a side issue.”
It was at Gcisa Commercial High School where this father of three cut his teeth in politics after being recruited to join a local boxing club only to realise it was a cover for a political school. This is where they gathered to talk about the student uprisings at Sharpeville, and Langa township in 1976, and the need to support such action.
He was doing Standard 9 (Grade 11) when he was expelled for attending “an illegal gathering” with 19 other pupils.
Even after his dismissal from school, he continued his involvement in politics through his boxing club, Yakooza.
His underground activism opened new avenues for him. When he passed matric, he got an offer to join Mercedes-Benz, then called CDA.
Mtsi was part of the MBSA team of employees who voluntarily offered their labour to build the late Nelson Mandela his very first Mercedes-Benz.
He is also one of the co-founders of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, a union he later led as its shop steward.
He joined both the ANC and the South African Communist Party in 1990, and was NU10’s ANC branch chairman until 1992.
He has been an ANC member of the provincial legislature (MPL) since 1999, until he was recalled last month and deployed to BCM as mayor.
It’s the time he spends with his wife, Nolundi and their three children aged 29, 21 and 19, that puts the spark in Mtsi’s life, he admits.
“They always insist that we go out to watch movies, enjoy a meal at a restaurant for our birthday celebrations. I don’t always remember our birthdays, but they remind me every time, and such gatherings have much sentimental value,” Mtsi said.
Despite his hectic schedule, he still finds time for another great love – jazz. “I like jazz, even Brook Benton. I still go to jazz shows. I’m becoming passionate about the annual Cape Town Jazz Festival. It is a passion I share with my wife, when I at times get lazy about going, she persuades me.”
Mtsi also used to like listening to Brenda Fassie and Yvonne Chaka-Chaka. Their music reminds him of his youth, bunking school to watch an action movie at Empolweni in Mdantsane, or else at the Victory bioscope in downtown East London.
At that time, he said, the most popular movies were what were described as “Westerns”.
“We enjoyed movies with Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, Bud Spencer or Terence Hill. They were as famous because of the violence associated with them.
“We used to bunk classes and go watch films on Wednesday afternoons,” he said, with a chuckle.
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