By Ntokozo Mfusi & Sapa
Central city shop owners rapidly lowered their shutters on Tuesday as thousands of stick- and knobkierie-wielding protesters ran or marched on their way to the Durban City Hall to object to plans to rename streets mostly after ANC heroes.
They participated in protest actions organised by opposition parties to air concerns about the way the ANC was handling the issue and giving prominence to ANC-affiliated freedom fighters over other political leaders who were involved in the liberation struggle.
At one stage, pedestrians scattered and the police rapidly cleared traffic out of the way as protesters ran down the recently renamed Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street (formerly Broad Street) to Albert Park, upending dustbins. Minor damage was reported.
At Albert Park, they joined mainly IFP protesters and marched to the city hall to hand over a memorandum of their grievances to eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba.
Neither he nor any representative from the eThekwini Municipality was present to receive the memorandum, so it was eventually handed over to the Director of the Durban Central SAPS, Aaron Harry, who said he would ensure that all relevant parties received it.
Mlaba later described the marchers as people "who chose to refuse to let go of the past".
"The reality is that the street names will change," he said.
He described the response to the renaming as "hysterical and emotive", but acknowledged valid points had been raised against some of the proposed names "and these will be considered before the final decisions are taken".
The memorandum urged the eThekwini Municipality "to resort to renaming only in exceptional instances in the interests of national reconciliation and healing", and accused the ANC of diverting attention from "the real task of transformation".
It demanded that the city focus on "initiatives that will bring tangible developments to the poorest communities".
The IFP questioned the choice of names such as those of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and South American revolutionary Che Guevara, their contributions to KwaZulu-Natal and "the lack of their democratic credentials".
DA eThekwini caucus leader John Steenhuisen said protesters were sending a message that people in KwaZulu-Natal were part of a democracy.
"History is not about one party. Where are the jobs you promised us? Where are the police to keep our people safe? Instead, you are wasting time with renaming," he said.
IFP National Organiser Albert Mncwango said he wanted people to remember the march by people who attended not as representatives of one political party but, rather, as citizens of KwaZulu-Natal who were marching to defend its heritage.
The name-change protest began about 2am on Tuesday, when IFP supporters barricaded the Mangosuthu highway in Umlazi, south of Durban, with dustbins, burning tyres and smashing traffic lights.
Spokesperson Superintendent Phindile Radebe said police had to clear the roads to make way for cars.
Metro Police spokesperson Thomas Tyala said five incidents had taken place during the march. The first was in Church Walk, near the post office, where there was vandalism of property; the second was in Grey Street, where one person was arrested for theft and malicious damage to property in a shop. In Russel Street, the window of a pawn shop was broken.
In another incident, a man was found in possession of a .303 rifle that was confiscated by police. Finally, two people were beaten by protesters at Berea Station.
Among those who participated in the march were IFP, DA ACDP members. In a move that has incensed IFP supporters, the council plans to rename the Mangosuthu highway after the ANC leader Griffiths Mxenge, a lawyer killed in the 1980s.
In his weekly Internet letter, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said he knew the removal of his name did not diminish his status or contribution to the country's liberation struggle. However, he feared that a new name for the Mangosuthu highway could "reopen... old wounds in KwaZulu-Natal".
He said renaming could not be conducted "in a manner befitting (Chinese Communist dictator) Mao's Cultural Revolution, in which names and events that do not fit into the ruling party's liberation narrative are disdainfully ejected".