More street name changes for city
The Tshwane metro on Wednesday, said that a call would be made for new proposals for additional name changes to the capital city before the municipal elections.
Tshwane residents can expect the proposal of yet more street name changes by the metro before the municipal elections later this year.
The date for the local elections has not yet been proclaimed, but Tshwane mayoral spokesperson Blessing Manale told Rekord on Wednesday, the metro would, before the end of the current political term, announce and call for new proposals for additional name changes of the capital’s major roads and streets.
Responding to whether the metro had yet laid criminal charges against members of AfriForum youth who on Sunday had placed old street names back on about 49 poles in Pretoria, or not, Manale dropped the bombshell about additional name changes.
He said that the metro would, in writing, give AfriForum until 12:00 on Friday, to remove the signage erected on the poles by its youth wing members. Should the civil rights organisation fail to do so, charges would be laid against the leadership of AfriForum youth.
“Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa is very angry that the police and senior AfriForum members had allowed the contempt and provocation to go unstopped,” Manale said.
A group of students from the youth organisation had replaced the signage for WF Nkomo, Stanza Bopape and Helen Joseph streets with Church Street signage in Afrikaans, English and Sesotho.
Five students were arrested and detained at Sunnyside police station for almost two hours before being released without any charges.
The students had placed 49 ‘Church Street’ signs on poles before they were arrested.
The metro on Tuesday, accused AfriForum youth of racism and said it would lay charges against the organisation.
“Despite our genuine attempts to reach out to the Afrikaner communities, in particular, and the minorities in general, AfriForum has rubbished our commitment to nation-building and social cohesion.
“Their actions are aimed at invoking the emotions of [provoke] our people and their translation of Church Street into Sesotho is nothing but a disregard of the embedded rationale for diversity,” Manale said on Wednesday.
“We challenge AfriForum to also explain the historic role of the names they wish to retain and their roles in the oppression of our people and the persecution of the Ndebele, Tswana and Pedi tribes of pre-colonial Pretoria.”
Manale said that the youth of the metro, which formed the majority of residents, should regard the actions of AfriForum as the contempt of their immediate development priorities.
“We call on AfriForum to remove the reinstalled names from the streets of the capital city or face our legal might and the anger of those who have voted for us and support our transformation agenda and the overall fight against racism and fascism,” Manale added.
“In addition, to announce and call for new proposals for additional name changes to our major roads and streets, the metro would also seek legal advice on the conduct of the police about the arrest of the youth with a view to file a complaint with the IPID.”
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