Zondo's father pleads for rethink

Published May 6, 2007

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By Agiza Hlongwane

The father of the Amanzimtoti bomber has made an impassioned plea to the eThekwini council to honour his son in his birthplace, KwaMashu, and to name the road he lives in after him.

"It doesn't sound right (to rename Kingsway). It's as if we are being spiteful and that is not right." Aiken Zondo told the Sunday Tribune

He said the move to rename Kingsway in Amanzimtoti to Andrew Zondo Road would be tantamount to rubbing salt into the wounds of those who lost their loved ones during the bomb blast 22 years ago.

Two days before Christmas, 1985, a limpet mine planted by then 19-year-old ANC cadre Zondo killed five people and injured more than 40 at the Sanlam Centre in Amanzimtoti.

Zondo was arrested and later sentenced to death for the murders. He was hanged on September 9, 1986.

Initially buried in Pretoria, his body was exhumed in 2005 and he was reburied at Redhill Cemetery.

Now, the eThekwini Municipality is considering renaming Kingsway in memory of Zondo - a move which, like a string of other proposed new street names for Durban, has met vehement opposition.

"It doesn't sound right," said Zondo snr, a pastor at the Africa Evangelical Church for more than 40 years, resting on a wooden bench at his home in KwaMashu this week, Bible at his side.

"It doesn't sound right to do it in a place where something like this happened. This means the pain those people felt will be reignited every morning. It does not help them to forget or accept what happened. For them it's not honouring anyone. It's as if we are being spiteful and that is not right."

After the bomb blast, Aiken Zondo spent some time with the families of those who died in a bid to find common ground.

He said he had tried to put himself in their shoes, "to ask what kind of memories will be brought back by this thing".

He said he had spent the past two decades fending off people who wanted to remind him about the blast and what had happened to his son.

He said if he had his way, Andrew Zondo's memory would be preserved closer to home, through the naming of a road, building or monument after him.

"The road behind us is called Isipingo Road. If it was renamed after Andrew, wouldn't that help ensure his memory did not fade? That way, everybody who sympathises with us would be able to point and say, 'look, there is Andrew's home'. Or if there are no more streets to rename, then look at buildings, like community halls, and rename one after my son."

Reacting to a popular perception that people who objected to the renaming of Kingsway did so because they were white, Zondo said this was not true.

"They are doing so because they are alive, they have feelings. They can see, they can feel. If this happened in KwaMashu, how would we feel?

"I'm not saying my son should not be honoured, but the way they want to do it carries undertones of pain. If they don't see that, then I don't know."

Zondo said he had fond memories of his son. "He was a good boy, very sensitive, very kind."

To think that his son got involved in the bombing and died for it caused Zondo untold heartache.

"It was very painful. Just imagine that pain being brought back after 20 years by newspapers, political parties and all sorts of people."

Zondo believes the street renaming process serves as a nation-builder, but ought to happen in peace, especially where his son is concerned.

"You have to ask yourself what reconciliation is. Who is reconciling with whom? Let us not take this at face value."

In his summary of the way the process was unfolding, Zondo said it was worrying that many streets could be renamed after people who had no relevance to Durban. "How can you have a road in Durban named after someone from the Western Cape, or Cuba for that matter?

"It would be true to say that they are like people who are throwing a stone at a pack of dogs. If one barks, then they see that that one has been hurt.

"As Zulu people, we say when the king farts, we can't say the king has farted. The layman takes the blame. But in this instance, it looks like the king has farted."

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