Former ANC mayor, and present Cope councillor, Mr Ben Mokoena, told the Observer that the party will be spearheading a public campaign to have the resolution to name streets after apartheid policeman known as Tycoon, and one of the murderers of Mr Petros Mokoana, reversed.

Mr Mokoana’s son, Selvy, could not contain his shock when the ANC used its majority in council to give the go ahead to have a street name after one of his father’s killers, Lefty Mashego.

Mokoana burst out screaming from the public gallery “he killed my father!”.

Mr Mokoana, then chairperson of the taxi industry, was gunned down in front of his house in 1974 by a group of jealous rivals.

Selvy was nine at the time of his father’s murder.

The murder happened in broad daylight, and Selvy says their family was left to fend for themselves after the loss of their successful, and respected breadwinner.

On Thursday, he demanded that all information regarding the nomination of Mashego, and the consequent decision to honour him, be handed to him and his family.

“I will fight this tooth and nail,” he warned the ANC.

The Mokoana family has the full support of Mr Mokoena and Cope structures, which he says he appreciates.

Around 3000 people has already rallied around Selvy by signing a petition to have the council resolution reversed.

He says a number of churches have also thrown their weight behind him.

“The ANC is fast becoming an organisation without any moral standing,” Mr Mokoena says.

The DA submitted a proposal that the names be remitted to the committee, but the ANC bulldozed the decision through with 33 votes against 17.

ANC’s political head, mayor Mike Masina, told the Observer on Tuesday that he indicated, after a heated debate, that the offending names would be referred back to the naming and renaming committee, “which is well represented by all political affiliations”.

Mayor Masina says that there was no need for Mr Mokoena to politicize the matter and that he even extended an invite to Mr Mokoena to be involved in the committee’s reviewing process of offensive names.

“Clear distinctions will have to be drawn between Tycoon the policeman, and the other Tycoon, a businessman,” Mayor Masina said.

He however remains open for further discussion about the flagged names.

The DA remains reluctant to be drawn into the debate, and caucus leader Mr Hennie Niemann, merely said they were not aware of any criminal or apartheid connections, and can therefor not comment.