The much-debated proposal by the City of Johannesburg to rename Sandton Drive after Palestinian struggle hero, Leila Khaled, has come to a halt.
Following heated deliberations from political parties and civic organisations, ActionSA announced the Joburg political management committee (PMC) agreed to stop the renaming for council members to reach a consensus.
The PMC comprises of all political parties in the ANC-led local government.
The motion to rename Sandton Drive after Khaled was approved in 2018 by the city council, which was suggested by a tripartite coalition of Al Jama-ah, the EFF and ANC.
ActionSA Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, and the DA’s Ward 90 councillor, Martin Williams, welcomed the PMC’s decision.
Williams stated that “the pressure is working” in pulling the plug in the renaming process, especially after the DA also garnered over 5 500 objections against the proposal.
Williams subtly accused the Joburg metro’s lack of public participation during the renaming process last year, even though it received over 60 000 submissions from civilians approving Sandton Drive’s name change.
He further challenged the legitimacy of the submissions, stating that they were “duplicates and untraceable”.
This is not the first time the DA has thrown such accusations.
“Since the city started this process of renaming, it has been flawed to the core.
“Unlike the bulk of submissions supporting the renaming—collected under the questionable oversight of a fraud-accused former MMC (Kabelo Gwamanda)—our objections came from traceable, legitimate stakeholders who would bear the brunt of a renaming decision,” said Williams.
In same advocacy with the DA, Ngobeni slammed the metro for polarising the public to engage in renaming infrastructures that should instead honour South African heroes.
However, the metro has clarified that renaming Sandton Drive after Khaled is strengthening diplomatic ties with the Palestinian government, despite the US Consulate located on the same area.
Ngobeni urged that local government should focus on improving road networks, instead of pushing for name changes.
While parts of Joburg are plagued by water shedding, both parties decried the levels of poor service delivery under the mayorship of Dada Morero.
“The realities of local government in Johannesburg are stark, as too many residents and communities have experienced a declining level of service delivery and infrastructure stability.
“The city needs to start fixing potholes, and stop playing cheap politics. This, and not the renaming of non-offensive street names, must be the priority and focus of the municipality,” said Ngobeni and Williams.
Ngobeni said his party is willing to forge partnerships with like-minded parties to rescind the decision to honour Khaled using Sandton Drive.
“ActionSA will not support a motion by the Freedom Front Plus to rescind the original council resolution until such time as this process of consensus building is concluded,” said Ngobeni.
The Star