Road name changes can’t fix what’s wrong with the ANC

At Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s April 2018 funeral, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema asked for a hint from the grave. “Give us a sign, Mama”, he pleaded, eliciting boos and cheers.

He was lambasting opportunistic ANC “sell-outs” who had betrayed her. News24 said Malema attacked “those he claimed disowned the leader but were now claiming her as one of their own”.

That’s still true of the divided ANC. Over decades, Winnie was alternately shunned and lionised. Abused and used when convenient.

Now, the ANC wants to give Winnie a sign. Or rather many road signs bearing her name.

The timing is cynically exploitive. In an election year, with the economy in tatters and Johannesburg a crime scene for Covid19-fund looting, the ANC wants to spend money renaming William Nicol Drive.

One of the most visible tiffs between Winnie and ANC leadership received international TV coverage in 2001.

Thabo Mbeki, president at the time, physically brushed Winnie aside when she arrived late to assume an unallocated place on stage at the 25th anniversary commemoration of the Soweto uprisings. Winnie’s hat was dislodged. Unrepentant Mbeki said she was not meant to be on stage.

Shades of Nelson Mandela’s 1994 presidential inauguration. Winnie was sidelined on many occasions. Malema’s graveside assessment was spot-on.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I interacted with Winnie on many occasions, in person and by phone. She made no secret of her disdain for certain ANC leaders. In this newspaper I had chronicled and criticised her infamous deeds but she was happy to talk at length.

No one can say for certain how Winnie would have felt about William Nicol Drive being renamed after her. A trained social worker and lifelong champion of the poor, she may have felt that any unnecessary expense during this time of economic deprivation was wrong. Or she may have welcomed it.

I have submitted, to the relevant member of the Joburg mayoral committee, questions about the renaming of William Nicol Drive.

Noting that the city and country face economic difficulties, exacerbated by Covid-19 lockdown, I asked whether municipal, provincial and private sector costs of the proposed renaming have been calculated. Also, which city departments will bear the costs and what budget items will need to be cut back? Written replies are awaited.

It’s absurd that a city which cannot afford or deliver decent service to residents of any economic class should waste money on nonessential name changing.

Rich and poor alike endure substandard service, while millions are looted from Covid funds. Cash-strapped residents, with reduced incomes, are being asked to absorb above-inflation tariff and rates increases in return for declining value.

Yet somehow money must be found for name changing. Both the name change and the furore distract attention from Joburg’s decay.

They sustain the myth of a glorious struggle movement which, in reality, is corrupt, incompetent and disintegrating.

Like Humpty Dumpty, the ANC cannot be put together again.

Road name changes can’t fix what’s wrong with the ANC. Renaming is no magical Ace up the sleeve. For the party, the sign reads: dead-end street.

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