Pretoria - First there was Lillian Ngoyi Street and then Lillian Ngoyi Memorial – and if the City of Tshwane has its way, soon there will be the Lillian Ngoyi Theatre.
The city plans to rename the iconic State Theatre after Lillian Ngoyi, the freedom fighter and co-leader of the historic 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings.
Tshwane MMC for sports and recreation services, Nozipho Tyobeka-Makeke, told the Pretoria News on Monday that renaming the theatre after Ngoyi made perfect sense.
The MMC was laying bricks to mark the launch of the second phase of the R151 million Women’s Living Monument at the Lillian Ngoyi Memorial, with Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza.
Tyobeka-Makeke said the continent’s largest theatre complex which opened in May 1981 did not really have a name at the moment.
“Perhaps as part of the efforts of preserving our heritage, we ask the MEC to support our proposal to rename it the Lillian Ngoyi Theatre, given where it is situated,” she said.
Ngoyi led 20 000 women on a march along with Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, Bertha Gxowa and Albertina Sisulu, protesting against the oppressive pass laws of the apartheid government.
She was the first woman to be elected to the ANC executive committee and later became the president of the party’s women’s league.
The 1956 march started at the site of the memorial near the intersection of Helen Joseph Street and Lilian Ngoyi Street, formerly Church and Van der Walt streets, respectively. This site is where the statue of the apartheid prime minister JG Strijdom, against whom the women marched, once stood. Right-winger Barend Strydom shot 13 people in 1998 there, killing seven.
Tyobeka-Makeke said when Gauteng Premier David Makhura officially opened the memorial – possibly on Women’s Day (August 9) next year – he would, they hoped, be announcing Lilian Ngoyi as the new name for the theatre.
“My department will take up the matter with heritage authorities and engage with other stakeholders for the name change to become a reality,” she said.
“No hiccups are expected since this will be an intergovernmental process, unlike renaming a road or area.”
However, playwright, director and producer Deon Opperman said if a theatre was to be renamed after a politician, then politicians should return the favour by renaming political buildings after theatre personalities.
“Therefore the Union Buildings should be renamed after the legendary Winston Ntshona, if State Theatre was being renamed after Ngoyi,” Opperman said.
Respected actor, director and playwright John Kani said he had great admiration for Ngoyi and other women freedom fighters who played their roles well in the fight against apartheid.
But Kani said naming a theatre after Ngoyi was taking matters too far as she should be honoured within her constituencies and not in the art fraternity where she never played a role.
Kani said he was happy that Ngoyi would be honoured by having the State Theatre named after her, but was concerned that theatres were not her area of endeavour.
The State Theatre should be renamed after an actor, producer or writer, he said.
Acting chief executive officer of the theatre, Aubrey Sekgabi, said he would consult before giving an opinion that was representative of the theatre.
Pretoria News