An urgent revamp and strengthening of the powers of the South African Geographical Names Council and its provincial committees may be the tonic for divisive municipal street renaming processes.
In Durban, the process has been marred by violent protest, political bickering and a DA legal challenge to the eThekwini municipality.
”It is imperative that the national [arts and culture] minister address the names council and its provincial structures because people feel they can do things their own way,” said Mpume Mbatha, who chairs the KwaZulu-Natal geographical names committee.
Mbatha, who also sits on the South African National Geographical Names Council (SANGC), believes the SANGC Act should have stipulated a stronger role for the council and its provincial arms, ensuring a more conciliatory approach.
Currently, municipalities need not consult provincial committees and only require the SANGC to verify changes.
Mbatha said the effectiveness of his committee – which reached the end of its three-year term in March last year and has yet to be reconstituted – was hampered by a lack of financial and human resources.
The committee had been running on the ”remnants” of the language services budget from KwaZulu-Natal’s arts and culture department while waiting for a provincial bill to give them them a proper budget
”The bill was drafted three or four years ago and seems to have passed from one hand to another with nothing being done,” he said.
Mbatha said the SANGC was conceived to ensure the name transformation with nation-building, consultation and reconciliation in mind. The current fallout highlighted a need to revisit the legislation. ”The most important aspect is consultation; changes must be made as unanimous as possible,” he said.
Alleged lack of consultation lies at the heart of the DA application filed in the Durban High Court recently. It claims that a 2001 council decision to consult ”all addressees and all other affected parties” was not followed.
It wants to set aside a council decision to rename eight streets and two buildings, the Durban International Convention Centre, renamed Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre Complex, and the World Cup soccer stadium, initially named King Senzangakhona and now to be called after communist icon Moses Mabhida .
In his affidavit, DA caucus leader John Steenhuisen says the advertisement for the name changes, giving seven day’s notice, was ”hopelessly inadequate” for the lodging of objections and consultation.
The DA is also challenging the validity of the 181 originally proposed street name changes in terms of the SAGNC’s call for names with resonance in a particular area.
In response, the council has asked for the DA’s application to be struck off the roll. In court papers, municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe accuses the DA of ”rushing to court on extraordinarily short notice without justification” and creating an impression that name changes are imminent.
Cape Town
Tanya Farber
Future maps of Cape Town could tell us more than just the city’s underground history. New street names and places could also reflect the ongoing struggle in the city government between the ANC and the DA.
The parties have clashed over Cape Town’s renaming process, the council’s renaming panel, the heroes to be honoured and the panel chairperson, prominent anti-ANC voice Rhoda Kadalie.
DA councillor Owen Kinahan, joint author of the 2004 renaming policy, says proposals have been received from a wide range of people and organisations in a generally smooth process. But he adds that the ANC has ”tried to provoke tension”.
ANC spokesperson Garth Strachan hits back that a ”veneer of respectability [has been] provided by an inadequate consultation process”. He says the time for submissions was insufficient and that ”many struggle heroes are unknown to communities, for obvious reasons. Prominent people from non-political walks of life should be honoured, but not at the expense of those who led the fight against colonialism, slavery and apartheid.”
City mayor Helen Zille agrees that name change recommendations should be ”from across the political and cultural spectrum”, but insists that past mistakes not be repeated.
”Most streets and public places in Cape Town were named in a former dispensation,” says Zille, ”and those who named them ensured that only their heroes and symbols were reflected.” Strachan has criticised Zille for ”depoliticising the process” and undermining the role of the ANC and its struggle heroes.
Countering Strachan’s complaint that the panel is not sufficiently representative, she charges the ANC failed to nominate anyone. Despite this, ”10 of the 36 recommended changes are from the ANC and none from the DA”.
Kinahan says the political spat is the biggest hurdle facing the panel, which should be able to ”stand by its recommendations but take notice of the public comment that is now sought in the second phase of consultation”.
The divisions over Kadalie’s chairmanship are equally stark. Says Strachan: ”The panel is chaired by a person who is clearly not impartial.” Kinahan describes her as a ”sharp observer and analyst”. ”The fact that she is not intimidated into ignoring the ‘naked emperor’ syndrome is something that obviously annoys the ANC.” Kadalie was not available for comment.
New directions
Soon motorists could be heading into Cape Town on Walter Sisulu Avenue with the ghost of Coen Steytler hovering over them. Or, instead of De Waal Drive, they could use a road named after Phillip Kgosana, the PAC activist who led the 1960 Langa protest march.
Other liberation icons proposed as replacements for colonial and apartheid leaders are Thabo Mbeki’s father and Rivonia trialist Govan Mbeki (in Athlone) and black consciousness martyr Steve Biko (in Gugulethu).
The names of former ANC presidents Nelson Mandela and Albert Luthuli would emblazon Hans Strydom Avenue and JB Hertzog Boulevard respectively.
But politics is not the only preoccupation. Once in the city centre, motorists would use David Poole Street, in honour of the dance pioneer, instead of the street named after National Party premier DF Malan. And Oswald Pirow Street, named after the pro-Nazi nationalist Cabinet minister, would commemorate heart surgeon and freeman of Cape Town Christiaan Barnard.
Arch-imperialist Lord Alfred Milner would be quietly eclipsed by Cape Town writers: Milner Road in Sea Point would become Ingrid Jonker Street, while the one in Woodstock could become Adam Smal Street and, in Tamboerskloof, Uys Krige Road. Kromboom Road on your old map would become Taliep Petersen, after the recently deceased city artist.
Another round of public consultation will begin soon, and street names could change by September. – Tanya Farber
Potchefstroom
Yolandi Groenewald
The Potchefstroom council has recovered up to 20 street name signs of renamed streets, which, it says, were removed and dumped in the Vaal River by local right-wingers.
This is the latest twist in the ongoing battle over name changes in the North West town, which centres on moves to rename the town itself to Tlokwe and the renaming of existing street names, such as Potgieter Road, after struggle icons such as Nelson Mandela, Peter Mokaba, Beyers Naudé, Walter Sisulu and Steve Biko.
The council said it recovered the name signs from the river after receiving a tip-off from members of the ”progressive” white community.
In addition, several signs had been vandalised, including that of Nelson Mandela Drive, changed to De la Rylaan in honour of Anglo Boer War general Koos de la Rey.
Mayoral spokesperson Kaizer Mohau said criminals had placed illegal information boards at points in the town carrying racist and insulting messages about the city council ”and the changes that are unfolding in Potchefstroom”. About 60% of the new signs have been removed, according to Mohau.
”This kind of crime is making it difficult for our emergency services and the police to reach addresses in time where an accident or crime has occurred,” he said.
The announcement last year that names would change sent shock-waves through the Afrikaans community. Action Potchefstroom, formed to oppose the changes, took the council to the Mafikeng High Court in March, where it argued that there was insufficient public participation. A court date has yet to be set.
The name ”Potchefstroom” refers to Voortrekker leader Hendrik Potgieter. Tlokwe refers to the Batlokwe tribe, who lived in the area before the Voortrekkers moved in.