Less Waste, More Thought of Glen Marais writes:
Your article, Less talk, more action, refers.
Mayor Masina’s acceptance speech sounds very enthusiastic and promising except for the plans to rename streets of major roads and entrances to the city.
These people already have their names honoured in many other cities and I’m sure their families are very appreciative of this gesture. Our existing names are to honour people who have made notable contributions to this city through the years.
Since Mr Masina has the welfare of the city in mind, he should look at the exorbitant cost and repercussions, not only for Ekurhuleni, but for all the businesses along these streets. It’s not just a matter of changing the boards alongside the street (which are often misspelt too).
It’s changing maps and GPS coordinates nationally, municipal records, local signage on buildings and billboards, company letterheads, legal forms – to name a few. Small companies running on a low profit margin can ill afford such additional expenses. Imagine where emergency services, which are already finding it difficult to locate an address, can land up, looking for a street name that is duplicated in almost every surrounding town.
It takes decades for residents and their families to get accustomed to all the name changes as proved in Pretoria. Countless visitors to that city are often furnished with the new address although the directions are using old street names, as even the citizens of the city cannot remember all the name changes, nor can the people whom you ask for directions once you get lost.
Much petrol and precious time is wasted to find the address you’re looking for.
Why does Mr Masina want to confuse visitors to our city instead of welcoming them with the wonderful look of prosperity that his other forward moving changes will bring about once they are put in place.
Instead replace missing, rusty, damaged street name plates with legible ones that indicate we are proud of our city and the names of the founding fathers who helped build this little town into a prosperous city.
