Hanged political prisoner memorialised
“I was happy after the Stinkwater community supported the idea and they even erected and unveiled a statue in the local park to honour the late Mr. Moloise as a struggle hero,” says DSD official Veli Shongwe.
A poet and political activist, sentenced to death by the apartheid government in 1985 will be memorialised through a newly built community centre in the north of Pretoria.
The Gauteng Department of Social Development’s (DSD) newly built community centre in Tshwane will be named after the late Benjamin Moloise and will ensure that the Stinkwater community in Hammanskraal will not have to travel a long distance to receive social services.
Moloise was a member of the Stinkwater community.
Moloise was executed by the apartheid government on October 18 in 1985 after being accused of murdering a black police officer.
The centre is part of the Gauteng provincial government’s transformation agenda and was signed off by the former DSD MEC Morakane Mosupyoe in May 2022.
DSD official Veli Shongwe said despite challenges during the naming, they were able to convince the family for permission to use the name of their deceased family member.
“I was happy after the Stinkwater community supported the idea and they even erected and unveiled a statue in the local park to honour the late Mr. Moloise as a struggle hero.”
Shongwe indicated that other department institutions would also face similar rebranding such as the Stinkwater centre as this was an ongoing process that started in 2008.
“Currently four institutions are to be renamed in Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, West Rand and Sedibeng.”
He said to rename buildings, government institutions had to follow a strict process in accordance with South African Geographical Names Council Act, 1998.
The process include:
– consultation with the deceased family,
– consolidate information,
– presenting the file to chief director: stakeholder relations to be signed,
– public participation and
– submit files to geographical names change committee
DSD chief director Bongani Ngomane said the transformation and standardising of names is undertaken for the purpose of affirming the country’s history and national identity.
“This project is therefore intended to be educational and patriotic.
“Factors such as the wishes of the local community must not conflict with the principles of the SA geographic name committee (SAGNC) or Gauteng geographic name committee, redress where a name is changed based on historical consideration and any other relevant factors which SAGNC may identify,” said Ngomane.
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