Cape Town - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have vowed to force the City of Cape Town to remove all street names, roads, statues, and buildings that are named after colonial and apartheid figures, including that of FW de Klerk.
Submitting a motion in the City Council, EFF provincial treasurer and PR councillor Aishah Cassiem said road names such as Jan Van Riebeeck Avenue, FW de Klerk Street, Queen Victoria Road, and DF Malan Street must all be removed as they all remind the country of the painful colonial and apartheid past.
"These offensive street names and statues still represent and idealise colonialism within this city and go against the Constitution, which instead speaks to honouring those who suffered injustices in the past," said Cassiem.
These she said reflect a painful past of how these individuals started and painted the way to apartheid, and more so the programme of disposition of black people of their land, their minerals, and ultimately their dignity.
"It cannot be that 28 years into democracy that this government still praises these racists and murderers, on street poles, buildings and statues, knowing very well the pain, death and hardship it brought to many – which is a continuous insult to our black people of South Africa," she said.
Cassiem said progress has been very slow in the past 10 years to remove such names within the municipality.
"The EFF will put pressure on the city until all these names are removed and they start showing respect and empathy for black people in SA who suffered severely during apartheid.
"We call for the municipality to remove and replace these street names and statues with that of several forgotten and deserving black (African, coloured and Indian) apartheid activists who fought the struggle and for the dignity of its people, within its different communities, many of them who include woman on the Cape Flats, but who were never acknowledged by this government," she said.
Alan Bailey from AfriForum said their position on this matter is that there are many street names in the country with non-specific South African names.
"All South African leaders can be honoured without changing any names. Cape Town has changed many street names before and also has more important issues that resources can be used for instead of street names," said Bailey.
The City’s Deputy Mayor and mayco member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews said the naming of streets, bridges, and public open spaces forms part of their efforts to build an inclusive Cape Town where all feel at home and serves the purpose of creating social cohesion and a shared community across different cultural, social, and economic groups.
He said any person, including a councillor, wanting to propose to rename a street, bridge, or public open space must submit a formal application to the City of Cape Town Council and a preliminary list of alternative proposed names.
Should council agree with the submission, the city will advertise the proposed renaming for public comment for 30 days to allow all residents and interested parties the opportunity to submit their views. Once the public participation process has been concluded, the comments will be assessed, and the new name(s) will be submitted to council for approval.
"Once approved, the old names will be replaced with new signage indicating the new, approved names," said Andrews.