By Matome Sebelebele, tel: (012) 314 2267

What is in the name Tshwane?

Cultural identity, nation building, heroic stories and collective memories of the entire nation's history?

Tshwane Executive Mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa says "everything!"

With these remarks, the mayor hammered the final nail in the coffin of Pretoria, paving the way for the registration of the new Tshwane into history books with the South African National Geographical Names Committee.

This after the metro council authorised municipal manager Blake Mosley-Lefatola to effect necessary legal and administrative processes that would culminate with a marketing strategy to popularise the new name to the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), South African Weather Services, the media and foreign missions represented in the Jacaranda city.

The change would also see about 17 street names changed to new ones to reflect the "howling winds of change".

The streets include among others D.F Malan, Potgieter, Vermeulen, Proes, Pretorius, Schubart, Van der Walt and Prinsloo streets.

Pretoria suffered the same fate as Salisburg now Harare and Lorenzo Marques, which is now famously known as Maputo and other colonial names attached to African capital cities.

Father Mkhatshwa argued during a metro council address yesterday that the new name would be re-orientated and "articulate the mindset of the new nation".

"We are confirming the demise of oppression and the advent of freedom...the death of apartheid and the birth of democracy," implored the Mayor.

However the city's name change was met with disapproval from opposition parties arguing that it would be a logistical and economic nightmare to trade off Pretoria for what many say is an inevitable universal phenomenon.

"We can therefore not speak of a transformed South Africa when the cultural environment speaks the language of the past...of oppression," argued Fr Mkhatshwa.

Dealing a blow to those claiming it would be costly, quoting Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo's book entitled Decolonising the mind, the mayor said the transformation of society could not be measured in Rands and cents.

"Let no one try to stop the howling of winds of change by shouting reactionary statements in their path," he said. - BuaNews