Kwanele Butana
THE family of anti-apartheid activist Dullah Omar wants Jan Smuts Drive to be renamed after him and not Vanguard Drive, as proposed by the city’s naming committee.
The proposal from the committee came last week, but the family says neither it nor the public were consulted about it.
Latifa Omar, Dullah Omar’s sister, who said she spoke on behalf of the family, said that during the public participation process this year, the community had been told that Vanguard Drive would be named after Govan Mbeki and that in 2004, the community had proposed that Jan Smuts Drive be named after Dullah Omar.
“It wasn’t the family’s proposal, but we as the family accepted it because we thought they were honouring my brother’s memory.”
Omar said the community was surprised when the naming committee proposed in March that part of Jan Smuts Drive be named after her brother.
This part starts at the inersection in Athlone with Klipfontein Road and ends at the intersection with Lansdowne Road, where Jan Smuts becomes Strandfontein Road.
“The ANC branch objected to the partial renaming saying it resorted to the old apartheid Group Areas Act as the portion of the road cut through areas populated by coloured people,” she said.
“As the human rights person my brother was, he fought against racial divisions and the move would be against what he believed in.”
Omar said naming Vanguard Drive after her brother would be dishonouring Govan Mbeki’s memory.
Dulcie September’s sister, Stephanie Arendse, also said her family had not been approached about the proposal to rename the Athlone Civic Centre after September, and they had only read about the proposed move in newspapers.
She said she and September had grown up and gone to schools in Athlone. “I taught in Silvertown and she taught at Bridgetown Primary School. I wanted a street named after her.”
The
ANC representative in the naming committee, Charlotte Heynes, said the party did not have a problem with Athlone Civic Centre being named after Dulcie September.
Mayor Patricia de Lille’s spokesman, Solly Malatsi, said the proposal to rename Vanguard Drive would be sent back to the committee.
The committee chairman and mayoral committee member for roads, transport and stormwater, Brett Herron, said the proposal came from a consultation process in 2006.
“The mayor will apply her mind to the proposal to rename the Athlone Civic Centre and will make recommendations to the council,” he said.