Pretoria - The Gauteng government is not just planning on boosting the township economy, but also on ensuring that these areas become places that truly represent the people who contribute to their communities.
It was in this spirit that the Department of Social Development renamed the new community centre in Stinkwater, Hammanskraal, after Struggle icon Malesella Benjamin Moloise.
The upholsterer and poet, born in 1955 in Alexandra, was executed by the apartheid government on October 18, 1985, at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre, then known as Pretoria Central Prison, for his supposed role in the 1982 murder of a black security policeman.
These allegations were, however, refuted by the ANC, which claimed responsibility for the murder and repudiated the claim that Moloise was involved.
The US and the Soviet Union warned the then apartheid government against the execution, but the government still decided to go ahead with it.
The execution sparked anger in a number of townships, which spiralled out of control and subsequently reached areas such as the Johannesburg CBD, which had previously remained sheltered from the violence.
The department said the new community centre would be named after Moloise, because even though he was born in Alexandra, north-east of Joburg, he had in later years become a member of the Hammanskraal community.
Social Development MEC Morakane Mosupyoe said that the name change followed the approval of the memorandum by the department in May, which included renaming crucial areas as part of the provincial government’s transformation agenda.
Mosupyoe said having community centres in townships meant that residents would not have to travel long distances to receive social services.
The department’s Veli Shongwe said despite challenges during the naming process, they were able to convince the family to grant permission to use the name of their deceased family member.
“I was happy after the Stinkwater community supported the idea and they even erected and unveiled a statue in the local park to honour the late Mr Moloise as a Struggle hero,” said Shongwe.
Shongwe indicated that other departments’ institutions were also going to be named as this was an ongoing process that started in 2008.
He said four institutions were going to be renamed in Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, West Rand and Sedibeng.
Shongwe further explained that for them to name the institution, they had to follow the process in accordance with the South African Geographical Names Council Act.
He said this meant consultations with the deceased family had to be conducted, information consolidated, and the file presented to the chief director of stakeholder relations, then public participation and ultimately to the Geographical Names Change Committee.
Shongwe said the transformation and standardising of names remained an important undertaking.
Pretoria News