Tears all round for erudite Mike Tofile
THE periodisation and contextualisation of the dichotomy will never stand, horizontally and vertically.
If you are scratching your head, wondering what this means, you are not alone.
This is how politicians often felt in the presence of late ANC councillor Mike Tofile and how they fondly remembered a man they say was one of their best. His lucid use of complex English words was often the butt of jokes among his colleagues in council, but it is his intellect and political wisdom they will miss the most.
Councillors paid tribute to Tofile at a special council meeting yesterday where his seat was officially emptied.
Tofile, 60, fell ill while attending lectures in East London and died in the Frere Hospital on Monday.
COPE caucus leader Khwezi Ntshanyana said Tofile was “one of the finest brains this generation of councillors ever produced”.
He said: “He was a mine of political information and a fountain of revolutionary knowledge. He was a political superstar . . . The big words he used will always be remembered. He would use words like periodisation, contextualisation, internationalism. He was fond of the isms.”
Speaker Maria Hermans recalled fondly how she had named him “councillor dichotomy”.
“You will remember in the last council meeting I referred to him and councillor Loyiso Stemele as bush lawyers, because they would always quote laws and acts and we would not know if they were really proper quotes.
“We will remember councillor Tofile for the bombastic words he used,” Hermans said to laughter.
ANC councillor Feziwe Sibeko, who Hermans said was to blame for the back row of councillors – including Tofile – always chewing because she would bring vetkoek for them, spoke lovingly of her friend.
“In this back row, we’ve lost a friend and a very intellectual person,” she said. “He would read the agenda from page one to the end and you would not be able to take him by surprise with any item.”
ANC councillor Andile Mfunda said a municipal official once asked him if Tofile was a lawyer because of his “bombastic words”.
Mayor Ben Fihla said Tofile played an instrumental role during the one-city talks in the early ’90s. “A giant has fallen,” he said. DA councillor Bobby Cekisani said Tofile’s eloquence in English would be missed by all in council.
UDM councillor Mongameli Bobani said Tofile had fought for services in his ward, and he had never heard a bad word said about the former KwaMagxaki councillor.
There was not a dry eye in the chamber when a wreath and framed photograph of Tofile was handed over to his family.
Stemele, who sat next to Tofile in the chamber and who was by his side in hospital until he died on Monday, sobbed uncontrollably and had to be comforted by his colleagues.
Hermans thanked DA councillor Mzukisi Ncamane for ironing Tofile’s clothes in East London when he felt unwell. ANC councillor Veliswa Ndidi had also helped care for him till the end, she said.