Letter: Why change the name of KwaDukuza hospital?

The proposed name change for our regional hospital must be an inclusive process and cannot be “ahistorical” and disregard indigenous names.

Already, those in power have agreed to name it after Justice Maqina Mpanza, A.K.A General Gizenga, who spent 15 years on Robben Island.

We named a municipal building after him as well as the street because of his role in the struggle but also as a senior councillor who died on duty (he had a heart attack on his way to a council meeting). Njabulo Ndaba and I with assistance from the mayor of Ilembe district, Cllr SS Gumede, visited him on Robben Island.

We contacted him two years before his release with the assistance of the then UDF president, Archie Gumede. The name “KwaDukuza” unites all of us. The hospital is a “regional” one, it belongs to the entire Ilembe District.

To remove “KwaDukuza” from the hospital name treats the “indigenous” name in the same context and weight as the colonial name “Stanger”.

If it is a must to name it after this outstanding MK cadre, why then remove the name “KwaDukuza” when we have Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital?

I was speaking to mayor Ricardo Mthembu about naming KwaDukuza Justice Department after Prof Kader Asmal because he was a Professor of law in exile, but you cannot name it after Chris Hani or Prof ZK Matthews who were not professionally linked to law or constitutional development.

Many suburbs are born within KwaDukuza Municipality, none have an indigenous name speaking to our history before 1652. Ballito is fast growing but not a single street reflects our history, yet there is this audacity to remove “KwaDukuza” from our hospital name.

Kindly convince us that naming a hospital after him speaks to his legacy, so why must we discard the name “KwaDukuza”.

I hope the Mpanza family, that I hold in high esteem, will not feel offended with my input.

If it’s a must to name it after Gizenga, kindly do not remove the name “KwaDukuza”. Why does the municipality want to name Blythedale Beach after Bonga Zungu? Also why are you not changing Salt Rock and Sheffield beach?

It’s a sharp contradiction that Ballito must remain “white” but the KwaDukuza side (north of Umvoti Toll) must be wrongly transformed. Again, Blythedale beach does not belong only to KwaDukuza irrespective of its geographical allocation.

What if we call it Ilembe or KwaDukuza beach? When the late John Mchunu drove changes in the names of the streets in Ethekwini Metro, he was looting, but to the president it was revolutionary. A street was named after a Shebeen King when in Umlazi we had people who excelled in education, health and so on.

Because of the abuse in the naming of public spaces, a committee must be established to do research and propose comprehensive criteria so that we avoid the mistakes I have mentioned.

Let us diversify name changes, we cannot name public spaces after young people who died having not achieved remarkable things in society just because they are ANC.

That is why a suggestion of a committee to look at name changes broadly rather than in a narrow political perspective that is “ahistorical” is needed.

Siyanda Mhlongo, KWADUKUZA (Letter shortened)