Johannesburg -
Football is alive in the city’s eastern township of Nellmapius, where most of the streets in Extension 3 have been named after popular clubs.
Most of the honoured teams play in the Absa Premiership and National First Division.
Some share names of clubs in the all coloured and Indian Federation Professional League disbanded in 1990.
These include the now defunct Cape Town Spurs, Leeds United and Crusaders.
The name of former Cape Town giants Hellenic is still alive in one of the roads.
So are those of former giant-killers Real Rovers, African Wanderers and Qwaqwa Stars, now known as Free State Stars.
Mozambican club Costa Do Sol and Kabylie of Algeria are some of the names that are now familiar.
Lower division clubs whose names are alive in the township’s streets include Blackburn and another Cape side - Santos.
Bafana is another popular name that appears on the street post, after national football side Bafana Bafana.
There is also Colts Road, named after the term used for developmental divisions of big clubs, and Striker Road, in honour of players deployed as centre-forwards.
But it is top South African sides that get residents of the area excited every time they look at the road names.
These include Soweto clubs Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows, city club Mamelodi Sundowns, as well as Bloemfontein Celtic.
Some residents have even proudly put up name plates on their walls displaying their addresses with the soccer names.
The only “downside” is that nowhere do Chiefs and Pirates roads meet, thereby depriving the area of the great Soweto derby, said Smicky Magolego, a resident of Sundowns Road.
Kaizer Chiefs Road, however, does intersect with Moroka Swallows to create match-up referred to as “the other Soweto derby”.
Patience Bapela of Qwaqwa Stars Road said: “The names are just beautiful and I love them. Soccer-crazy children, especially the boys, are crazy about them too.”
Bapela said she was initially surprised by the street names when she moved into the area, but had gotten used to them.
“People from other areas raise eyebrows when you give them your home address. But I simply just laugh it off,” she said.
Magolego said he was madly in love with the football names and praised whoever initiated the idea at the City of Tshwane as a genius.
“The names are better than those of other areas which are hard to pronounce and remember, or have funny meanings,” he said.
Njabulo Makama, a Kaizer Chiefs supporter and resident of a street named after Amakhosi, said the names were simply beautiful. “I love my street name,” he said, displaying the love and peace sign associated with the Naturena, Joburg south, club.
Not to be outdone, Nunki Diale was dressed in the colours of her favourite Orlando Pirates not far across the road.
And Diale lives in Pirates Street.
Shop owner Abdul Liban was unaware what Orlando Pirates was nor how huge the club was when he opened his business on a road named after the Buccaneers two years ago.
Liban said he had since fallen in love with the club and the road.
Pirates is a strong and big brand supported by hundreds of thousands of people in and out of South Africa, and plays good football, the businessman said.
City of Tshwane mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale said the rationale in using the names was that football was a favourite national sport in South Africa.
He said this made the names appropriate and educational.
Manale said the idea was to build on the momentous support the sport enjoyed from fans in the country.
Soccer is a pleasurable sport and promotes social cohesion, he said.
The names and these motivations were approved by council in January 1998.
“This resolution was taken before the Public Place and Street Names Committee was established by a council resolution of September 2001, and before the Public Place and Street Names Policy was approved in April 2002,” he added.
“This policy was revised in 2011 and approved by council the following year and is now named the Local Geographical Names Policy.”
Pretoria News