{"id":792196,"date":"2024-09-25T07:58:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T05:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=792196"},"modified":"2024-09-25T08:06:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T06:06:06","slug":"plan-to-change-the-name-of-one-of-joburgs-most-important-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/792196\/plan-to-change-the-name-of-one-of-joburgs-most-important-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to change the name of one of Joburg’s most important roads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The City of Joburg is proposing to rename Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive, continuing the trend of renaming key roads in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city invited comments from interested and affected parties, who have 28 days to respond. Comments can be sent to dominicam@joburg.org.za.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal comes a year after another key road, William Nicole Drive, was renamed Winnie Mandela Drive on September 23, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, it is not the first time the name change has been put forward. The change was proposed in 2018, supported by the majority of councillors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, according to City of Joburg ward councillor Martin Williams, the proposal had been altered post-approval, which may open it up to legal challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that Al Jama-ah, seconded by the ANC, initially proposed renaming Sandton Drive as Ramallah City Drive, but this was later amended by the EFF to make the change to Leila Khaled Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The response from users on Twitter has not been positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many respondents called the move to rename Sandton Drive a waste of money and resources\u2014especially given the city’s financial constraints and massive infrastructure issues\u2014while others called it divisive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some raised concerns about the new name, given that Leila Khaled has no real ties to South Africa or Johannesburg and is a controversial figure in the Israel-Palestine war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khaled is a Palestinian liberation fighter known for hijacking and attempting to hijack planes in 1969 and 1970. She has become a popular pro-Palestine icon among supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Williams noted that she has no ties to Joburg specifically, nor has she contributed in any meaningful way to the city’s development\u2014some of the key requirements to justify a name change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also stressed that the proposed change goes against many of the name-change rules and brings the City of Joburg into the Israel-Palestine conflict, antagonising one side over the other\u2014the opposite of goodwill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name changes remain a controversial talking point in South Africa at the best of times. However, at the very least, the changes put forward are tied to local heritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said earlier this month that the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC) and the Provincial Geographical Names Committees (PGNCs) are planning a fresh push for name changes in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are currently 66 applications<\/strong><\/a> for name changes for several geographical features in South Africa, listed by the South African Geographic Names Council (SAGNC) as being processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These name changes will apply to various geographical features across the country as outlined within the SAGNC mandate, including towns, villages, settlements, townships, mountains, rivers, airports, roads, and post offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council has gazetted and named or renamed 1,505 geographical features in South Africa since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the name changes are taking place in only a handful of provinces, with the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal being particularly aggressive in this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauteng has not been as prominent in the name-change game but has targeted key routes in its endeavours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: More name changes in South Africa on the way<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Joburg is proposing to rename a key road in the country’s richest square mile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":780772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792196"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792222,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792196\/revisions\/792222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}