In heaven’s name!

Had voting gone a little bit differently, Durbanites driving in the CBD could have driven along Kitchen Street or Laughing Children Street. Or, if you were heading for Wilson’s Wharf, you might have driven along Rajbansi Embankment.

These are just some of the unusual suggestions to come out of the latest round of the eThekwini Municipality’s street-renaming programme, which was reopened in December after the DA won a court case protesting against the process followed in naming the first batch of nine streets.

The second batch of 98 names were ruled to have been renamed fairly and were allowed to remain by the court.

The court ruled the city had three months to revert to the original nine names. But instead of doing this, officials reopened the process in the hope of having it completed within three months and, therefore, negating the need to change the names back. This process was reopened in the middle of December.

More than 8 500 proposals were sent to the council during the month-long public comment period, but the committee tasked with dealing with the controversial policy voted in favour of the nine original names that were stripped following the court case.

Essentially, this means the streets will probably be renamed back to their original new names.

They are:

l Victoria Embankment (Margaret Mncadi Avenue).

l Stanger Street (Stalwart Simelane Street).

l NMR Avenue (Masabalala Yengwa Avenue).

l Point Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road).

l Alice Street (Johannes Nkosi Street).

l Grey Street (Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street).

l Broad Street (Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street).

l Commercial Road (Dr AB Xuma Street).

l M4 Northern Freeway (Ruth First Freeway).

Responding to questions sent by the Tribune, Siyabonga Mngadi, deputy head of the city’s geographic information and policy department, confirmed the new names would probably be adopted at the end of the month after being presented to the council meeting on February 29.

Already the governance and human resources committee has decided on the proposals and its decision will now go before the powerful executive committee before being tabled before the council.

Majority

Given the ANC’s overwhelming majority in the council, these proposals are almost certain to be given the thumbs up.

Despite 8 542 proposals being submitted, only 141 were discussed by the committee. Among these were suggestions to rename Victoria Embankment after Amichand Rajbansi, the former Minority Front leader who died early last month.

A proposal was also received suggesting that Stanger Street be renamed Lipschitz Street in honour of former mayor Mike Lipschitz.

Other leaders proposed by some of Durban’s citizens include former president Nelson Mandela, former KZN Education MEC Faith Gasa, Zulu kings Senzangakhona and Shaka, former councillor and Tongaat mayor YS Chinsamy and anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman.

There are also some quirky – or even strange – proposals, such as one suggestion to rename Broad Street to iBoza Street, after a traditional herb that is believed to have psychedelic properties when smoked.

Another suggestion was that Alice Street should be named uBani Street – ubani in Zulu is literally translated as “who”.

Whether coincidentally or not, the nickname of new eThekwini municipal manager, S’bu Sithole, was proposed, but rejected. Had it been approved, Grey Street would have been named iNkunzi Street which, in Zulu, means bull. iNkunzi was Sithole’s nickname.

Among the stranger proposals were to rename Grey Street as Kitchen Street and Stanger Street as Laughing Children Street. No motivation was given for these names and they were rejected.

There were also some logical and serious suggestions, including proposals to merge the new and old names.

This would mean that Commercial Road, which was renamed Dr AB Xuma Road, would become Commercial-Xuma Road. Point Road would become Point-Gandhi Road, NMR Avenue would become NMR-Yengwa Avenue and Victoria Embankment would become Victoria-Mncadi Avenue.

However, these were rejected, too.

It was also suggested NMR Avenue, which runs alongside the Moses Mabhida Stadium, take a sports-related name, such as Mabhida View, Sportsman Avenue, Stadium Way or Mabhida Avenue.

But these were also rejected.

Before the new names are finalised, ratepayers still have one last chance to comment on the nine names that have been selected by the committee.

The cut-off date for comment is February 23, just six days before the proposal goes before the council.

Comments can be e-mailed to corporategis@durban.gov.za, sent via fax to 031 332 0850 or posted to 41 Victoria Embankment, 2nd Floor Rennie House, Durban, 4001. They can also be hand-delivered to all Sizakala centres.

matthew.savides@inl.co.za