Public participation needed to rename road in honour of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

In honour of the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the City of Johannesburg is embarking on a public participation process to rename William Nicol Drive after the ANC stalwart.

Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo announced the process on Saturday – the day that would have marked Madikizela-Mandela’s 84th birthday – at an event at the Fourways Memorial, where she was laid to rest in 2018.

“We are at the Fourways Memorial at the Mandela Estate to remember and pay our respects to the freewoman of the City of Johannesburg, the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

“She would have been 84 years today and we thought, as the City of Johannesburg, to come and pay our respects and officially launch the start of a public participation process to rename William Nicol after a motion of council was passed a year and a half ago in order to honour Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,” Makhubo said in a video taken at the event and shared on Twitter.

The road was named after Dutch Reformed minister and Transvaal administrator at the time of construction William Nicol.

The renaming was first announced in October 2018, by then Gauteng MEC for Transport Ismail Vadi.

The change in names seeks to promote inclusivity, Vadi said at the time.

“The names on our road and transport infrastructure may have a technical function but government has a conscious role to play in promoting an inclusive identity with such infrastructure,” Vadi previously told News24.

“In so doing it should raise citizens’ awareness of the heroes and heroines that played significant roles in the country’s struggle against apartheid and its people’s freedom. The naming of the provincial road network does not seek to remove the past but to promote an identity which is inclusive of all the citizens of the country.”

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