Brandfort: Sisulu’s proposal to change name is absurd
28 September 2020
The populist statements made by the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, about the possibility that the name of Brandfort in the Masilonyana Local Municipality (Brandfort, Winburg, Theunissen) may be changed to Winnie Mandela Town serve as proof that the ANC is much more concerned with senseless name changing than with prioritising service delivery.
The residents of Brandfort experience water and sanitation problems on a daily basis and very few of the other services are provided as well. The Minister says that these problems are caused by dilapidated infrastructure and a growing population, but fails to make any mention of the numerous years during which the existing infrastructure was not maintained nor upgraded and no planning was done to accommodate more people either.
And now the Minister wants to spend the already scarce resources on changing a name instead of on infrastructure upkeep and development.
The proposed name change will have great financial implications for all spheres of local government while making absolutely no contribution to alleviating poverty, infrastructure development or the growth of the local economy.
Brandfort's local economy has already been paralysed by the serious impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the government's subsequent draconian regulations. Given the current financial crisis, no responsible government would even consider such a name change at this time.
It is unacceptable that the ANC government wants to change the names of towns and cities as in doing so, it is disregarding the history and development of these towns and cities.
The FF Plus is convinced that the ANC is merely using such populist statements about sensitive matters to canvas for votes seeing as it is clearly not able to provide proper service delivery.
The Brandfort community urgently needs infrastructure interventions – not parties, monuments or disruptive name changes.
If any attempts are indeed made by the local government to start the official process of changing Brandfort's name, the FF Plus will do everything in its power to oppose it.
Statement issued by Jan van Niekerk, FF Plus provincial leader: Free State, 28 September 2020
