In 2008, the Joburg Development Agency (JDA) was fixing up the Randburg CBD when it realised there was a problem.
The area had recently declined and the JDA had begun with a revitalisation programme when it noticed a number of major streets named after apartheid prime ministers and leaders.
“It would not be easy when sitting in a meeting talking about revitalising Hendrik Verwoerd Drive,” says Lael Bethlehem, who was then CEO of the JDA.
The decision was made to change the names of five streets in Randburg, but Amos Masondo, mayor of Joburg at the time, did something unexpected: he suggested that just two street names be changed.
“He said we must also respect the history of Randburg, so that in 20 years’ time people can ask: ‘Why is it named this way?’ And we can say it is because it has a particular history and we don’t have to deny that history,” says Bethlehem.
So, Hans Strijdom Drive was changed to Malibongwe Drive. Initially Hendrik Verwoerd Drive was to become Nkululeko (Freedom) Drive, but during public participation it was suggested it be renamed after Bram Fischer instead.
The reason, Bethlehem says, was that Fischer, an Afrikaner who was a freedom fighter, was the antithesis of Verwoerd.
Nearly two decades later, Joburg is dealing with a controversial street name change that, if it goes ahead, threatens to damage diplomatic relations with the US. It involves the renaming of Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive, to honour a Palestinian militant who was involved in two aircraft hijackings in 1969 and 1970.
South Africa-born Joel Pollak, a conservative political commentator in the US, warned that if the street was named after someone considered by his country to be a terrorist, US President Donald Trump’s administration would close the consulate, which is on Sandton Drive.
In March, the Joburg council voted against a motion to rescind the proposed name change. Soon after, it was announced that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be engaging the council over the possible diplomatic implications.
[The council] could have renamed any other street but they chose that particular street and obviously the US will be pissed off
— Thembani Mkhize
It is an example, says Thembani Mkhize, a researcher at Wits University’s Gauteng City-Region Observatory, of where a street name is being used as a weapon rather than a tool to build social cohesion, as outlined in the City of Joburg’s policy on the naming of streets and public places.
“[The council] could have renamed any other street but they chose that particular street, and obviously the US will be pissed off,” he says.
There have been other recent controversial name changes. In Amanzimtoti, in KwaZulu-Natal, Kingsway Road was renamed Andrew Zondo Road, after the ANC Umkhonto we Sizwe operative who bombed a shopping centre in 1985, killing five people.
In 2022, a street sign bearing his name was vandalised; the act was caught on film.
Sandton Drive cuts through DA councillor Martin Williams’s ward, and he points out that the name change goes against the city’s own rules. The policy on the naming of streets and public places states that naming streets after people who are still alive should be avoided. Khaled, 81, lives in Amman, Jordan.
Names, according to the policy, should also promote goodwill and reconciliation and reflect the character of the area.
The DA, says Williams, is looking at possible fraud during the public participation process. This relates to the 70,000-odd signatures that were collected supposedly in support of the Khaled name change.
“They had no identifying, traceable details, no ID numbers, no address, no phone number, no e-mail address. We had asked for a forensic investigation into that,” says Williams.
But since Ramaphosa has got involved, Williams says, all is quiet. The presidency did not respond to requests for comment on how the engagement with the council is proceeding.
Since then, the US government has named the new ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell, who has said nothing about closing the consulate if Sandton Drive is renamed Leila Khaled.
Reports in The New York Times suggest that the US plans to close embassies and consulates in Africa, including possibly in Durban.
For Bethlehem, Masondo’s delicate handling of the renaming of the two Randburg streets in 2008 is a lesson in how name changes should be handled.
“It shouldn’t be done to divide people or to provoke or settle scores; it has to be done respectfully.”
She is still proud of her involvement in the renaming of the two streets. “It is still very thrilling to hear on the radio a traffic presenter talk about Malibongwe Drive because at the time, one of the objections was that people would not be able to pronounce Malibongwe, and of course, everybody can, and they should be able to.”
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