SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE COUNCIL MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 29 AUGUST 2012 BY COUNCILLOR BRETT HERRON, CHAIRPERSON OF THE NAMING COMMITTEE, ON THE OUTCOME OF THE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS FOR THE RENAMING OF 24 STREETS, TWO CIVIC CENTRES AND A FOOTBRIDGE 

Mr Speaker,

Today this Council will seek to bring some finality to a process that began nearly six years ago. 

The process for this administration commenced with 27 unresolved proposals from the previous Council and today we will ask Council to adopt a relatively modest set of recommendations that will see six streets, two civic centres and a footbridge being renamed. 

Our work over the past few months, culminating in today's recommendations, has been guided by this government's programme of redress and reconciliation; and we have pursued our objective of building an Inclusive City by recognising that naming is a powerful tool that can ensure that our city's place-markers reflect the full diversity of all our people and our unique and combined history.

Understandably this process, more often than not, elicits a deeply emotional response and throughout the process we have tried to hold ourselves to a standard of objectivity, extensive and comprehensive public consultation, transparency and acute sensitivity.

This was not always easy as those of us who have fronted this work, especially at some of the public hearings, have had to endure some of the crudest responses which were often rooted in deep seated prejudice and a lack of generosity of spirit that has no place in our democracy. 

We have also been witness to the grossest form of political opportunism by those, such as the Freedom Front, who have attempted to revive their flagging political prospects by exploiting the inherent emotion and uncertainty of this process and dishonestly driving a campaign that this administration was targeting Afrikaner names. 

It is shameful that they are unable and unwilling to accommodate the plurality and diversity of our city and our country and have worked actively to perpetuate unnecessary division.   They have failed to learn from our painful history that focussing on the relatively small human features that differentiate us; like race, language and religion; and employing and exploiting these differences is doomed to fail.   The work of city-building, like that of nation-building, in the context of our history requires compromise from us all.

Having said that, the vast majority of the nearly 19 000 residents who participated in the consultation process are to be thanked for their meaningful responses and for the great sensitivity and generosity they demonstrated, even when they opposed a particular proposal.

While the recommendations we are proposing to this Council today will never please everybody, I am confident that the most people will accept that that this process was open, fair, transparent and legitimate; that they will acknowledge that we have paid careful attention to the voice of the public; and that they will recognise that the recommendations we are making today do indeed reflect our genuine desire and commitment to building a city where our streets and public places reflect the full diversity of all our people and begin to tell an honest and balanced story of our history.

Mr Speaker, the recommendations before us include a number of streets where, following the public consultation process, we propose to leave the names unchanged.  Unfortunately our proposal to rename Vanguard Drive after the late Dullah Omar, to honour his work and life commitment to our country, was not supported by his family and we will obviously respect their wishes. In this regard we are thus proposing to also leave Vanguard Drive as unchanged.

The recommendations also include the naming of an un-named footbridge after the two previously divided communities it now connects.  We are recommending the honouring of a handful of South Africans whose life work helped pave the way for the democracy we enjoy today. And finally, we are proposing to remove the name of Hendrik Verwoerd, the iconic apartheid figure.

I trust that we can all view the recommendations as a whole and celebrate the very small step we are taking today towards building that inclusive city.

Issued by the City of Cape Town, August 29 2012

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