The president of the Greater Alexandra Chamber of Commerce (Galxcoc), Mpho Motsumi has pleaded with the youth and others to stop calling his beloved Alexandra, Gomorrah.
Leading a delegation of journalists on a tour of the R30 million Alex Mall in Tsutsumani Village, Motsumi said he so detested the nickname, Gomorrah, as it has a bad connotation which was contrary to his very dream about the township and the vision behind the creation of the mall.
“Why call Alex Gomorrah? he asked. “What on earth is Gomorrah? Can anyone in his serious mind call a place he or she so loves, where he or she was born, Gomorrah? This is a place that has given birth to you and then you turn around and call it Gomorrah.
“Some of us are going out of our way to change the negative perceptions out there about
Alexandra but we have our own children and the youth destroying the very values we are trying to implant in Alex and calling the place a hell,” said Motsumi.
A visibly angry Motsumi was reacting to a journalist who had wanted to know why the township was being nicknamed Gomorrah, and wondered why the mall was named Gomorrah as young people seemed to love that name.
“I so much detest that name as it goes against the grain of my vision about Alexandra and the very ideals of the establishment of the mall,” said Motsumi.
“I set out to change the negative perceptions about Alexandra and here are my own children [in the community] destroying the very foundations of my work and calling the township hell.
“By so doing, they are feeding the very bad vibe about Alexandra… that it is a bad place, filthy, full of criminals and infested with rats, and that it is a living hell for its residents. I plead with you; stop calling our beloved Alexandra a living hell. Dark City I will understand as it used to not have electricity and that was part of our history,” he said.
Motsumi, a born and bred Alexandrian who still lives in the township, pointed out that the vision behind the mall was to change the perception that the township was a living hell. “I want people to know the true history of Alex, which produced some of the most amazing people in our country, past and present.
“That the likes of former President Nelson Mandela lived here, the late Mozambican liberation hero and their first President Samora Machel once lived here, former President Kgalema Motlanthe grew up here, ANC stalwart JB Max lived here, former first lady Zanele Mbeki was born and lived here, one of the most notable musicians of yesteryear, Mahlathini and his Mahotella Queens was born and lived here, Caiphus Semenya, Dr Irvin Khoza and so many and so forth,” Motsumi said.
