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| Who is Stephen Dlamini? |
Lilian Ngoyi, Sylvester Ntuli, Dr Pixley KaSeme, Che Guevara, Problem Mkhize...........who are these people? Am I compiling some sort of list of names? No these are all new street names in Durban. And you may well ask what these people did to deserve this recognition? Well I have no idea. If you take Gardiner Street for example it was so named after Captain Allen Gardiner, a fearless missionary. If it wasn't for him there probably wouldn't have been a Durban. And then along comes a Mike Sutcliffe who decides to rename 90 of our roads and streets without consulting us who pay our rates. There's a street renamed after Yasser Arafat.....now you tell me what did he do to deserve a street named after him? Take the photo above for example.......Who is Stephen Dlamini? It used to be Essenwood Road which every cab driver and local citizens know the location of.........but ask them where or who Stephen Dlamini is/was, and they won't have a clue. Some of the names are unpronouncable like Masabalala Yengwa Avenue which had all historians up in arms as it used to be called NMR Avenue. NMR stands for Natal Mounted Rifles, one of Durban's oldest regiments who fought heroically against the Nazis in World war 2. Masabalala Yengwa on the other hand as far as I can see did nothing much to warrant a road to be named after him. What is the purpose of all this renaming? As radio personality Gareth Cliff said "Stop renaming things. Build new things to re-name."
I'd like to suggest to Mr Sutcliff to read a book called "Who Was Who in Durban Street Names" by David Dick before making name changes and don't forget to consult us Durbanites beforehand. Maybe he will realise the big mistake he has made before it's too late.
I'd like to suggest to Mr Sutcliff to read a book called "Who Was Who in Durban Street Names" by David Dick before making name changes and don't forget to consult us Durbanites beforehand. Maybe he will realise the big mistake he has made before it's too late.
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