Tshwane mayor puts his foot down on name change furore

Pretoria will be renamed Tshwane irrespective of the cost or opposition to the move, mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa has said in a newspaper report.

Ramokgopa said Pretoria’s name change as well as the name change of 21 streets would happen before the end of 2012, the Pretoria News reported on Tuesday.

“We are going to be resolute and stubborn in ensuring that our history is recorded correctly because our brave heroes paid the ultimate price,” he was quoted as saying.

He spoke on Monday at the unveiling of the 13 names of victims, on the city’s Wall of Names, at Freedom Park. The 13 were shot dead during a 1985 protest against high rents.

Ramokgopa said he did not care about what the media reported about the costs related to the name changes as no amount of money was too much for “recording history correctly”.—Sapa