Ongoing tensions over the proposed changes of street and building names in Durban prompted the national Cabinet on Thursday to dispatch two ministers to the city in a bid to resolve the heated situation.
The announcement follows a march that saw 10 000 people converge on the Durban City Hall in protest against the proposed changes to the names of about 200 streets and buildings.
Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan and Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi will hold talks with all involved, said government spokesperson Themba Maseko on Thursday.
Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Maseko said the Cabinet is concerned about the reports of violence that broke out during the march.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Vincent Mdunge on Wednesday reported two cases of assault, and seven of looting and malicious damage to property.
”Cabinet was disturbed by reports of utterances by some local leaders, which appeared to advocate violent protest action,” he said.
Maseko did not say when the ministers would go to the province but said they will hold wide-ranging talks.
”They will talk to all the key role-players, mayors, provincial government and all opposition parties that expressed opposition,” he said.
The march was jointly organised by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the Democratic Alliance.
The eThekwini municipality council plans to rename the Mangosuthu Highway after the ANC leader Griffiths Mxenge, a lawyer murdered by apartheid security police officers in the 1980s.
It also intends renaming the city hall Madiba Hall after former president Nelson Mandela and has already named Broad Street after former South African Communist Party chairperson Yusuf Dadoo.
The city advertised the proposed name changes last week, sparking complaints that ANC-favoured names dominated the list.
eThekwini municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe and the city’s mayor, Obed Mlaba, issued a statement welcoming the proposed Cabinet visit.
Meanwhile the IFP on Thursday condemned the coverage of the march.
In a statement, the IFP’s provincial leader, Dr Lionel Mtshali, said: ”It was tragic to observe some media professionals stooping to the level of government propagandists.”
Mtshali, who was at the march said: ”What I saw with my own eyes was a peaceful and orderly march, with tempers inflamed by eThekwini council’s arrogance tightly controlled.”
He said the actions of some were ”completely blown out of proportion in the media who were obviously looking for a sensation. The stories of alleged violence were mostly wishful thinking. If you want to see real thugs in action, go to ANC events where bottles of urine have been thrown at the KwaZulu-Natal premier.”
He said the anger of the renaming is genuine and there was ”no rent-a-crowd”. — Sapa