The eThekwini municipality has backtracked on its plans to rename nearly 200 streets by extending the deadline for objections and inviting further submissions, the Mercury newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The deadline for submissions of new names and objections to the existing proposals was extended to the end of June following a meeting of political parties on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.
Durban’s mayor, Obed Mlaba, was quoted as saying: ”The African National Congress [ANC] will encourage the council to find different ways to commemorate those who played a major role in bringing about a non-racial, democratic, non-sexist and united South Africa.”
The controversial renaming has had some residents and opposition parties up in arms, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) threatening legal action. The parties had not objected to the renaming but claimed that the ANC had not kept to the agreed process.
The DA also expressed its dissatisfaction at city manager Mike Sutcliffe’s role in determining which objections to the proposed names were acceptable.
More than 12 000 objections had been received by the previous deadline earlier this month. Sutcliffe’s statement that only about 120 of these were valid objections angered some residents and political parties.
On May 1 more than 10 000 people marched through the city centre in objection to the proposed name changes.
The chair of the name-change committee, Zandile Gumede, will make an official request to Sutcliffe for a 30-day extension of the deadline for names to be submitted and for more comments on the existing list.
The Mercury reported that the ANC’s attempt to heal relations with opposition parties had been welcomed by the DA, which described the meeting as positive but expressed disappointment that a meeting of that nature had not taken place at the beginning of the process.
DA spokesperson John Steenhuisen was quoted as saying that the type of political engagement outside the arena of the full council was healthy for democracy and might have averted much of the unhappiness and resentment that had built up over the past four weeks had it been held earlier. — Sapa