Pretoria - The EFF in Tshwane has renewed its call to do away with the name Paul Kruger, including the late apartheid leader’s statue on Church Square and a street in Pretoria, because they were “symbols of colonialism”.
This is contained in a council report compiled by the municipal Economic Development and Spatial Planning Department after EFF councillor Moafrika Mabogwana asked for an explanation for a decision to retain the name Paul Kruger in a democratic dispensation.
Mabogwana said: “Post-1994 South Africa is still sitting with monuments and symbols of colonialism and apartheid which does not enhance transformation and the reconciliation agenda, and Paul Kruger is one such example.
“Historically, Paul Kruger is an individual who did not only preside over segregation and colonialism, but has committed black genocide, and therefore does not deserve to be honoured by a democratic South Africa.”
He had in March asked for a council report to explain the rationale behind the decision to retain the name Paul Kruger when the process of the name-changing took place in 2008.
“On September 27, 2007, council resolved that the process to call for proposals and motivations for names from the community to rename 27 streets in the inner city can be done. Paul Kruger Street was one of 27 names proposed for renaming,” the report said.
The report said the street fell under provincial roads and therefore the process for renaming it should have been initiated by the Gauteng provincial government and then done in concurrence with the City of Tshwane. The only process to initiate the renaming of a street is if the department receives an application with all the required documentation in accordance with the local geographical names policy for the renaming of a specific street.
“The processes as outlined in the approved local geographical names policy will then be followed,” the report said. In 2018, the EFF in Tshwane called for Paul Kruger’s name to be replaced with that of late Struggle heroine Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
According to a council report, the City would have to first confirm if it could embark on an application for the renaming because Church Square, where the Paul Kruger statue was located, was deemed a National Heritage Site.
In the past, the South African Geographical Names Council said the brass statue of Kruger and his burghers would not be toppled.
Instead, it further suggested that the statue of Kgosi Mampuru II, after whom the prison in Pretoria was named, be added at the square alongside Oom Paul.
The regional EFF had threatened to descend on the statue unannounced and destroy it.
However, the municipality had since secured the perimeter of the statue with barbed wire to protect the statue from vandals.
Pretoria News