Cape Town’s renaming panel has recommended that slain musician Taliep Petersen be remembered in a street name, and that a clutch of apartheid-era prime ministers drop off the map.
A total of 46 changes suggested by the panel of experts were released on Wednesday. According to mayor Helen Zille, the proposals will now be advertised for public comment.
”They will only be considered by mayco [the mayoral committee] after we have taken full account of the public comment,” she said.
The panel, chaired by human rights activist Rhoda Kadalie, recommended that Kromboom Road in the city’s southern suburbs be renamed Taliep Petersen Drive.
It proposed that Hendrik Verwoerd Drive in the suburb of Panorama make way for Beyers Naude Drive; that Hans Strydom Avenue in the city centre become Albert Luthuli Avenue; and that JB Hertzog Boulevard change to Nelson Mandela Boulevard.
Other figures to be honoured through street names if the recommendations go through are poets Jan Rabie and Uys Krige, heart surgeon Chris Barnard and freedom fighters Anton Fransch, Ashley Kriel and Colleen Williams.
The panel agreed that all the ”NY” — an abbreviation for ”native yard” — streets in Guguletu should be changed, but said this should be done after a ”memorialisation” process and community consultation. The same process should be followed with streets in District Six.
What the panel did not accept was the proposal, from a J Coetzee, for the renaming of the airport — which falls outside its jurisdiction — as Khoi San International.
It rejected changing De Waal Drive to Hoerikwaggo Drive, but suggested instead that it be named after Pan Africanist Congress member Philip Kgosana.
It also turned down a proposal to rename a city-centre street, named after National Party Cabinet minister and avowed Nazi sympathiser Oswald Pirow, either Anti Nazi Drive or Athol Fugard Street.
The Independent Democrats’ caucus leader in the city, Simon Grindrod, said in reaction to the list that the ID has ”serious concerns” about the process. He said there is no information on the cost implications of the proposed changes and that the panel did not have a clear set of policy guidelines.
”The whole process appears very rushed and messy,” he said. The ID wants the changes shelved until these issues are resolved.
Zille’s office said there is, in fact, a clear policy on renaming in place. The policy aims, among other things, to ensure an inclusive, consultative clear process that enjoys public and political support and which will stand the test of time. It also aims to ensure a transparent and community-driven process is followed when a name change is proposed. — Sapa