Dr Leepile Taunyane Stadium comes to Alex

President of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association, Maisha Molepo, said talks with the City of Johannesburg were at an advanced stage regarding the renaming of the Alexandra Stadium.

He was speaking during the launch of a tournament which honours one of the township’s great soccer referee’s and administrator’s, Ntate Philemon Molepo (not related to Maisha Molepo).

“As the executives of football in Alex, we have taken a conscience decision to honour all those who have contributed to the success of football in Alexandra and one of the starts of this process is the establishment of the Ntate Molepo Tournament,” said Molepo.

“We have also engaged the City of Johannesburg in a bid to get the Alex Stadium renamed Dr Leepile Taunyane Stadium in recognition of the contribution of Taunyane, not just to football, but to education and the community at large.”

He said the football association’s block of offices at the Alex Stadium had already been named after Ntate Molepo. “We are currently at an advanced stage in negotiations with the City regarding renaming the stadium,” Molepo said.

The move to rename the stadium was endorsed by the deputy President of the South African Football Association Johannesburg Region, Jimmy Bakos, who was present at the launch.

The stadium was renamed Meshack Kunene in honour of the ANC cadre in 2008 by the then Executive Mayor, Amos Masondo, but the football fraternity protested and said they were not consulted on the matter.

At the time of his death, Taunyane, who was one of the founding fathers of the National Soccer League in the ’80s, was an honorary life president of the league which gave birth to the prestigious Premier Soccer League.

Do you think it is a good idea to rename Alexandra Stadium or Meshack Kunene Stadium to Dr Leepile Taunyane Stadium?