Babalo Ndenze
Metro Writer
EASTERN Boulevard is to be named after Nelson Mandela on July 15.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille made the announcement to loud applause from the entire council chamber yesterday.
“I am pleased to announce that on July 15 this year, the City of Cape Town will officially rename Eastern Boulevard after former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela,” said De Lille. “Mandela’s vision of a people united in their diversity is a vision that the City of Cape Town is giving life to every day.
“And I am proud to say that we will honour Madiba’s legacy in this city. This administration will move ahead with the other street name changes as soon as possible. In so doing, we will respect the heritage of all our citizens so that we can create the cohesion necessary for a truly united city that includes everyone.”
ANC councillor Thembelani Sakathi welcomed De Lille’s announcement. “This only confirms that Mandela now belongs to everybody,” said Sakathi.
Former Cape Town mayor Peter Marais said: “It is long overdue that Mandela be honoured. He should be given the freedom of the city. There will never be anyone else born in South Africa who has influenced so many lives.”
Marais said he wanted to thank De Lille after the council meeting for doing something he could not do when he was mayor, when he suggested that Adderley Street be renamed after Mandela and Wale Street after former president FW de Klerk. “I want to say to the mayor – well done. It is the best way you
could have started as the new mayor of Cape Town. I honour you for having the courage to do what the DA did not allow me to do,” Marais said.
Regarding changing street names such as Hertzog Boulevard, he said: “People like Imam Haron, Dr Abduraghman, Sissy Gool and Dr Van der Ross should be honoured and remembered. While we must listen to what the public say, we must do what justice demands.”
At its last meeting of 2010, the city council approved four name changes. It unanimously approved that a section of Castle Street between Adderley and Burg streets be renamed after Khoisan leader Krotoa, and the plaza spanning Hertzog Boulevard between the Civic Centre and the Artscape Theatre be renamed after Albert Luthuli, the first of South Africa’s four Nobel Peace Prize laureates and a president of the ANC.
Oswald Pirow, on the Foreshore, named in honour of the Nazi sympathiser, is also to be renamed.