Plan initiated to change street names in Mbombela

The City of Mbombela's street name changes: What you need to know.

May 27, 2022

Buks Viljoen 2 minutes read

The city’s residents are in for a massive name change shock after the City of Mbombela Local Municipality started to implement this process.

If the council’s local geographical names committee gets its way, the residents of at least eight streets in the city will find that they live in a strange new street soon.

Millions of rands of taxpayers’ money might be spent on the project.

The streets in the city that are targeted for a name change are Piet Retief, Bester, Anderson, Brown, Ferreira, Henshall, Voortrekker and Old Pretoria Road. Soon the suburb of Pienaar might be known as Nkosi City.

The decision to start these renaming projects was “silently” pushed through at the council meeting on February 28. The council resolutions stipulate that proposals for new street names in Mbombela, Hazyview, Barberton and White River must be done within 30 days.

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The first notifications of these proposed name changes were published in Lowvelder and its sister publication, Mpumalanga News, this week. Proposals and/or objections should thus be submitted by or on June 24. Street names in other towns in the Mbombela area of responsibility targeted for change are:

• White River: Danie Joubert and Theo Kleynhans
• Barberton: Kruger Street
• Hazyview: The R40 main road (which is currently actually known as an extension of Madiba Drive), Tarentaal and Stormvoël.

“Change the names if you want, but not with our money,” said Linda Grimbeek, chief operating officer of the KLCBT. “The council cannot even deliver proper services such as electricity, fixing of potholes and maintenance of open spaces to the residents.

“The council was heavily criticised in the latest Auditor General’s report in which poor achievement of targets, bankruptcy, staggering electricity and water losses, overspenditure and wasteful expenses of half a billion rands are reflected!

“And now it wants to spend money on name changing!” said Grimbeek. She said they are not against any type of name change, but only if the whole project is financed by a national government grant.

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The financial effects, if names are to be changed, are that every area plan must be updated, every title deed needs to be changed and every bond must also be changed and updated. All these costs will be for the account of the council.

“Before spending money on sport and recreation, surely the R35m budgeted for the newly established Department of Sports, Arts and Culture can be used to ensure the city has a stable electricity grid. Every hour the grid is down, the city is losing critical revenue from electricity profits,” Grimbeek said.

“The renaming of these streets is done to foster transformation and also to promote social cohesion in the City of Mbombela through the naming of geographical features,” said Joseph Ngala, spokesperson for the municipality.

“Regarding a budget for the renaming of the streets in the towns of the City of Mbombela, council has not yet determined the cost implications.

“The costs for the renaming process will include the change of surveyor general plans and installation of new name boards. “The costs will be calculated once public and stakeholders’ comments and proposals had been received,” Ngala said.