The City of Cape Town’s latest street renaming process has been described as a “circus” while some councillors have accused it of ignoring the city’s Muslim community.
The councillors were reacting to the announcement by the city’s naming committee that 31 names would be submitted for public comment.
Their comments were made on the eve of tomorrow’s official renaming of Oswald Pirow Street as Christiaan Barnard Street.
Cape Muslim Congress councillor Yagyah Adams said his main gripe with the new process was that no Muslims served on the city’s naming committee who could “assist in providing a marginalised cultural perspective”.
“As a member of a minority community, I have become accustomed to having my community’s cultural history ignored, even though we have been part of this city for over 300 years,” Adams said.
He said, because he had no vested interest, it was easier to “impartially wade into a discussion which is emotive and important to many”.
“Clearly, to appease Africans and Afrikaners, the change from Hendrick Verwoerd Drive to Beyers Naudé Drive is brilliant. In one move, a name despised by some is replaced by one respected by many. The fact that Naudé was a white Afrikaner is the key that makes this proposal palatable. The fact that he was an activist and a man of God is the cherry on the cake,” Adams said.
He also noted that Dullah Omar was honoured only from Athlone to Strandfontein Road and the road name would remain Jan Smuts before it reached Athlone.
“Is Dullah Omar Drive perhaps unworthy of passing Pinelands? Robert Sobukwe gets Modderdam Road in Parow Industria. I suppose he needed to be accommodated and something, even an industrial area, is better than nothing,” Adams said.
He said the only “uproar” he anticipated was renaming Jeff Masemola Drive, from Willie van Schoor Rylaan, in Oakdale.
Adams also asked why cultural icons were not being remembered.
The ANC’s leader in the council, Tony Ehrenreich, also joined the debate and was more scathing, saying mayor Patricia de Lille was just taking a “grand political stance”.
“The problem is that this is a bit of a circus, the way the mayor lifted out the names. She’s taking a grand political stance and now they are starting a whole new process and this process is turning into a complete gimmick. It’s the apartheid names they need to get rid of,” Ehrenreich said.
Tomorrow’s name change will honour Dr Christiaan Neethling Barnard exactly 44 years after he performed the first successful heart transplant on December 3, 1967, said De Lille’s spokesperson Solly Malatsi. - Cape Times Citizens who paved the way to a new country:
* David Poole Street: David Poole played a major role in establishing arts and culture in Cape Town. He was an internationally recognised ballet dancer and choreographer and the first person of colour to serve as head of ballet at the then Nico Malan Theatre (Artscape).
* Anton Fransch Road: Anton Fransch was a commander in Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was murdered on November 17, 1989 in Cape Town by police and the South African Defence Force for his anti-apartheid activities, according to the Who’s Who website. A poem was also written about him called The Funeral of Anton Fransch by Tatamkhulu Afrika.
* Isaac Jacobs Road: Isaac Jacobs was one of the founder members of the League of Friends of the Blind (Lofob).
* Dulcie September Drive: Dulcie September was an ANC activist who was forced into exile by the apartheid regime and was assassinated abroad.
* Imam Haron Road: Imam Haron was a Muslim cleric who stood against the apartheid regime and died in detention. This was one of the proposals where the proposed name was submitted with a “banked” name by the panel.
* Reverend Theo Kotze: Kotze called on his congregation to oppose apartheid in 1968. The street rename is to honour him and his wife for their contribution to a non-racial South Africa. He was a liberation theologian and director of the banned Christian Institute.
* Jeff Masemola Drive: Jeff Masemola was the longest serving prisoner on Robben Island. The panel recommended that the name be accepted to honour his contribution to a non-racial South Africa.
* David Rabkin Street: David Rabkin was a student activist at UCT in the 1970s. He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe and was later exiled. He died in Angola.