Randburg street names not yet final

Out with the old and in with the new – two of Randburg's major roads are to be renamed in the spirit of our democracy. But the decision on the new names has not yet been taken. By Tammy O'Reilly

The new names for Randburg's Hendrik Verwoerd Drive and Hans Strijdom Drive are being finalised.

In July 2006 the Johannesburg Development Agency, on behalf of the City of Johannesburg, announced that the names of these main roads, which have strong associations with apartheid, would be changed. The new names would be more representative of the current times.

Following a rigid public participation process involving newspaper advertisements, radio announcements, website surveys and ward committee meetings, Malibongwe Drive (Hendrik Verwoerd Drive) and Nkululeko Drive (Hans Strijdom Drive) emerged as the most popular replacements.

Randburg became a National Party stronghold in the 1950s and both streets are named after former prime ministers who played leading roles in implementing apartheid.

Hans Strijdom, elected prime minister in 1954, is remembered for enlarging the senate; this enabled him to pack the upper house with government supporters who would deliver the two-thirds majority needed to change entrenched clauses in the constitution.

Under his premiership, pass laws for black women came into effect and the Industrial Reconciliation Act, which put an end to mixed race trade unions, was passed.

The word 'nkululeko' means "freedom" and it would refer to the successful struggle against Verwoerd's policies. Malibongwe means "praise the women" and would refer to the 1956 women's march against carrying passes.

Overall, the public participation process revealed that 44 percent of residents, businesses and other stakeholders supported the name changes, and 14 percent were indifferent. Of those who live in the area, 47 percent were for the name changes and 16 percent were against.

The most popular suggestions were to rename Hendrik Verwoerd Drive Nelson Mandela Drive, and to rename Hans Strydom Drive Chris Hani Drive.

According to a detailed document handed to the mayoral committee, there was a mixed reaction from residents regarding the name changes, ranging from "they would be good for the country's democracy" to "they were a waste of ratepayers' money".

With the revitalisation of Randburg under way it is envisaged that changing these street names will create a positive identity with which residents and businesses can identify.

The reaction from businesses, however, was generally negative, with many citing the costs of the changes that would have to be made to business cards, billboards and stationery. Only 20 percent of businesses agreed on the name changes.

There are 33 intersections on the two streets and changing street signage will cost R1 000 per intersection.

Article and photograph/s courtesy of City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za).

Readers' Comments
I'm sure they have changed the figures around on who was for and against all this. Just think of all the money need to be spend on a stupid thing like name change.

Businesses have to change company documents, letters, advertising and all the relevant things that goes with that. Who is going to pay for that.

The bottom line to all this is simply, that it's a street name it means nothing to the people that uses it. - Jannie

The R1000 rand per intersection for the 33 intersections is only the tip of the iceberg. What about the cost of updating and replacing street plans? A good street plan of the Johannesburg area costs well over R100. Everytime that a street or suburb is renamed the current street plan becomes worthless. If you start to calculate the cost of this naming transformation across Johannesburg, Gauteng and the rest of South Africa it must be running into billions of rands. Apart from soothing the egos of predominantly black politicians and upsetting a lot of white, mostly afrikaans speaking people, there is no benefit either economically or in any other form from having done it.

Does this country not have enough much higher priorities? Supplying basic services to all comes to mind as does upgrading the existing electricity and road networks to the benefit of all.

No matter how hard you try you cannot change history and the people that were at the forefront of it. Why do you want to hide it? - Jim Dickson

I understand the need to change the names of the streets, but how about neutral names. The choice and meaning of the "new" names are apt, but only because I have read the meaning in this article. What about those who can't or don't? Also the pronunciation and spelling for the less advantaged and foreign visitors will be a unnecessary problem. We have so many problems that cannot be fixed right now, why cause more??

These are main roads that need simple names. Surely there are some appropriate names that mean something in the required languages, that can be user friendly? Even as I type this I know that the decision has been made and the powers to be are simply paying lip service to the community. But when changing the rest of the offensive road names, please consider the above comments. - Sue Pearson

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