Balfour was established and proclaimed a town in 1898. It was planned on a farm Vlakfontein, and was first named McHattiesberg after the owner, FS McHattie.
It was later renamed Balfour around 1905 after the British Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour presented a speech at the local railway station.
At this stage native African men and woman had already migrated from the neighboring areas like Natal and the Free State as Agricultural and Mining economic migrants and established Nthoroane. Nthoroane later became for the end of world war on the geometric shapes of the SR Mountain.
After the collapse of the CODESA 2 and during the height of the Multiparty negotiations, the white Nationalist Party and other white supremacists where pushing for a federal state in which the states would be self governing and regulating through their individual parliament from independent elections. The ANC Alliance however, was fully convicted of the idea of a Unitary Nationalist State with centralized governance and regulation. A compromise position was then reached through the establishment of a Quasi-Federal State of a national government with provinces.After the collapse of CODESA 2 and during the height of multiparty negotiations, the white Nationalist party and other white supremacists were pushing for a federal state in which the state would be self-governing and regulating through their individual parliaments from independent elections. The ANC Alliance however, was fully convicted of an idea of a Unitary Nationalist State with centralized governance and regulation. A compromise position was then reached through an establishment of a Quasi-Federal State of National government with provinces.
It was this time that Dipaleseng was then re-demarcated from PWV to Mpumalanga province. This process did not include much consultation of citizens purely because the material and structural conditions did not permit this to happen.
Dipaleseng annually explodes with varying pink and white cosmos flowers providing a breathtaking and refreshing sight to people visitors and passersby. That is how the municipality was named Dipaleseng, which is a Sotho word meaning a “place of flowers”.
