Rubbish bins and burning tyres were used to barricade the Mangosuthu Highway in Umlazi township, south of Durban, on Tuesday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said.
Municipal workers started their Workers’ Day clearing up the barricade. Dustbin crews in orange uniforms could be seen removing the charred remains of fires and rubble, as residents armed with sticks and knobkerries looked on. All the traffic lights at one intersection were smashed.
Police wearing bulletproof vests and carrying automatic rifles were present.
Spokesperson Superintendent Phindile Radebe said police called to the scene early on Tuesday had to clear the roads to make way for cars. By 7.30am, the situation had calmed, she said. No arrests were reported.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported earlier that the roads were barricaded by members of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) who were protesting against the name change of the highway.
It has been proposed to rename the highway after an African National Congress (ANC) leader, Moses Mabhida. IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the move ”could reopen the many old wounds in KwaZulu-Natal, which we have striven to heal for many years.”
In his weekly internet newsletter last week, Buthelezi warned the ANC against honouring only its own liberation fighters in its renaming drive. ”It seems to me that freedom fighters who did not hail from the same stable as the ruling party are being given scant consideration. This is short-sighted and, in the long run, counterproductive.”
Moreover, the history of the liberation struggle began many centuries ago. ”Renaming must not be conducted in a manner befitting Mao’s Cultural Revolution, in which names and events that do not fit into the ruling party’s liberation narrative are disdainfully [r]ejected,” Buthelezi said.
”While I know that the removal of my name does not diminish my status or my contribution to the liberation struggle of this country, I genuinely fear that a new name for the Mangosuthu Highway could reopen the many old wounds in KwaZulu-Natal, which we have striven to heal for many years.”
IFP members were expected to march to the Durban city hall on Tuesday to voice their dissatisfaction. — Sapa