MBOMBELA – Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza is known for choosing his words carefully, but last night at the launch of the Mpumalanga Show 2017 the normally jovial Mabuza was in a philosophical mood when he was addressing the audience.
Mabuza drew laughter and gasps of surprise when, in his welcoming introduction, he specifically addressed MEC for Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Affairs, Mr Vusi Shongwe. He pointedly said to him: “Once I was MEC for agriculture and then I became Premier.”
City of Mbombela executive mayor, Cllr Sibusiso Mathonsi was visibly amused by Mabuza’s reference. Mabuza repeated his banter with the audience about the way forward for a while.
Mabuza also launched a melancholic rant about his future in politics.
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“I have only one-and-a-half years left, but I have had enough. It was not a walk in the park to be a premier. It is very lonely at the top. But you must accept it that way,” said Mabuza towards the end of his speech.
“I have a few ideas that I want to see maturing but I grapple with the challenges. It is not an easy life, I can tell you.”
He then related how he almost did not take the first call from the Mpumalanga Show’s chairman of the show committee, Mr Brian Ring, “because I was too busy and then I thought I was a little bit too harsh.”
He invited Ring to see him, and after their first conversation, Mabuza decided how best to harness the energies to make the idea of an agricultural show come true. “We are working hard, all of us, even though sometimes we work in silence. We should not each be in our own little corner.”
He remarked on the progress already made by the committee. “I will embrace it and make it our idea.”
At one stage Mabuza waxed lyrical as to how, “we need to create one space in Mpumalanga, one space in South Africa, one space in Africa, one space in the world for this show. This show belongs to the country, to the continent, to the world.”
He referred to the support that his government will be giving to the show. “We are giving you space to fly. And I say to you ‘fly high!’”
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