Sir – We are 25 years into democracy, yet day by day we travel through streets which have names but we do not know who the names belong to or what role (if any) these individuals played when streets were named after them.
We need to have the courage of conviction to start a discussion about whether these names are relevant to modern society. We must get a background, if necessary, as to who these individuals are whose names appear as on street names.
Let me name just a few: Karel Landman Street (Dundee and Glencoe) Biggar Street, Pieter Van den Berg Street, Victoria Street, Willson Street, Browning Street, McKenzie Street. Surely we can’t hold on to these names for another 50 years, or maybe we might want to continue with these names.
That is not my call to make, but we need to engage in a broad based discussion as to how we want to approach these matters. I fully acknowledge that these are sensitive matters and that they can be become very emotionally charged – so what. Is it criminal to open up a discussion on addressing ‘historical imbalances’?
I am not advocating that we must be racist when we talk about these matters, we must merely be realistic. For example, just to prove this is not a racist discussion we should probably identify names of white leaders who have made a meaningful contribution to the post-apartheid South Africa, local individuals whose selfless service contributed towards nation building.
PM Bisram
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