This is seen, in a very practical way, in the recent countrywide “renaming” process. Most of South Africa’s cities and towns were planned, laid out, and built by English and Afrikaner South Africans – the two “white tribes”. It is not surprising, then, that the cities and streets and buildings were for the most part named after various white leaders and heroes of the past. Even so, however, South Africa has always had beautiful place names in the black languages as well. But this is not good enough for the ANC. They have embarked on a deliberate policy of what they call “transformation”: the process of “transforming” SA’s cities and towns by deliberately erasing the monuments to English and Afrikaans South Africans, renaming the cities, and renaming the streets after predominantly ANC terrorist “heroes” and others. The plan behind this is to obliterate the history of the whites in SA, to make it appear as if they never came to these shores and never accomplished anything.
Thus, for example, SA’s capital city, Pretoria, named after an Afrikaner leader, has been renamed “Tshwane”, after some black chief who, we are told, lived in the area long ago. The ANC likes to tell us that it is not Pretoria itself that has been renamed, but rather the entire “megacity”, which (according to the ANC’s new demarcations) includes Pretoria and various other towns and townships; but in practice, Pretoria is already being referred to as Tshwane by ANC leaders and the State-controlled SA Broadcasting Corporation. In this way, one of the world’s great capital cities has all but disappeared off the map. It is a deliberate slap in the face of Afrikaners, a huge number of whom still live in and around Pretoria.
And other cities and towns have had their names changed as well. Pietersburg became Polokwane, Stanger became KwaDukuza, and so on. And not only cities and towns. Dams, buildings, airports and streets have all been renamed. In Pietermaritzburg, for example, some nineteen streets were renamed, mainly after ANC revolutionary “heroes”. Johannesburg International Airport, the main gateway to South Africa, has been renamed “O.R. Tambo International Airport”, after the late ANC leader, a Marxist terrorist who oversaw the ANC from outside the country and directed its terror campaign against the State.
White South Africans are feeling like tourists in their own country, so rapid has been the “transformation”.
And the latest city to come under the assault of the Marxist re-writers of history is Durban, SA’s famous holiday destination and the busiest port city in Africa. But in Durban, the massive attempt at rewriting history in the ANC’s image has met with huge and angry opposition, from English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Indian South Africans. The sheer scale of the renaming process in this city, and also the kinds of people whose names are being attached to the streets and buildings, have the residents of Durban up in arms. In the words of the leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, Tony Leon, the choice of the new street names is “a rogue’s gallery of Third World revolutionaries”, which ruthlessly celebrates only one narrow version of the country’s history – the ANC’s version.
181 name changes have been proposed by the ANC-dominated city council! Most of them commemorate ANC “struggle activists” as they are called (their true name: terrorists), but in addition, the names of certain monstrous Marxists and terrorists from other countries are proposed. As John Steenhuisen, the opposition Democratic Alliance’s Metro caucus leader, said: “This ‘kick sand in your face’ kind of approach from the ANC cannot go unchallenged. They are using their majority in council as a blunt instrument to push their will and narrow party political interests.” He said there should be wider community participation instead of decisions being taken by officials behind closed doors. True – but this is of course ever the way of Communists.
As previously stated, it is not only English and Afrikaans South Africans who are incensed at the proposed name changes. Zulu supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) are up in arms over the plan to rename the Princess Magogo Stadium (named after the mother of IFP leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi) after Dumisani Makhaye, a late ANC housing minister. It is also proposed that the Mangosuthu Highway, named after Buthelezi himself, be changed as well. This further enraged IFP supporters, who (rightly) said that only ANC “heroes” were being honoured.
Durban’s notorious Point Road, for decades a centre for prostitution and drugs, has been renamed Mahatma Gandhi Street. This has incensed many Indian residents of Durban, saying Gandhi’s name should not be associated with the most notorious road in the city.
The proposed new name for the Durban Metro police headquarters is Umkhonto weSizwe Building. Umkhonto weSizwe, known as MK, was the name of the ANC’s vicious armed wing during the years of its revolutionary terror campaign. It was the precise equivalent of the PLO, or the IRA. It was responsible for terrible terrorist atrocities throughout the country. For decades, conservative, anti-Communist South Africans warred against this evil organisation. But of course, the ANC is in power now, and MK was incorporated into the SA Defence Force. The Defence Force today, in fact, is MK, for all practical purposes.
Church Street, in the Durban CBD, could soon be renamed after Steve Biko, the Black Consciousness leader who died in prison. Another road that may bear his name is Umgeni Road. Or possibly the Botanic Gardens Road. Field Street could be renamed after Joe Slovo, a sinister leading light in the ANC before his death, believed to have been a KGB colonel. Old Fort Road may be named after the late Chris Hani, the leader of the SA Communist Party, a terrorist leader. Or otherwise, he might get North Coast Road, Parkhill, named after him, or even West Street, a major CBD street.
Smith Street, one of Durban’s most important central streets, may be renamed M.A. Adelaide Tambo Street. She was the wife of the ANC’s Oliver Tambo. Another road which may bear her name is Currie Road, Musgrave. The proposed change for Musgrave Road is to Walter Sisulu, one of the top ANC leaders and a fellow-terrorist with Nelson Mandela. And the famous Marine Parade may be renamed O.R. Tambo Marine Parade.
NMR Avenue (named after the Natal Mounted Rifles) has already been changed to Masabalala Yengwa Avenue.
The proposed new name for the Jan Smuts Highway, Dawncliffe (Smuts was one of SA’s Afrikaner prime ministers, and a world political figure in his time), is Denis Hurley Highway. Hurley was a Roman Catholic archbishop, based in Durban, and one of the top “liberation theologians” (“Catholic-Communists”) who used his considerable influence to throw support behind the ANC during its revolutionary campaign. It is also possible that Queen Street might be named after him instead.
Another leading “liberation theologian” was Beyers Naude – and Umhlanga Rocks Drive might be renamed after him.
Old Main Road, Hillcrest, could soon be renamed after Govan Mbeki, a terrorist comrade of Nelson Mandela and the father of SA’s present president, Thabo Mbeki. And the Durban City Hall, it is proposed, should be renamed the Madiba Building, after the name by which Nelson Mandela is well known.
Then too, there is the plan to rename Edwin Swales VC Drive after one Solomon Mahlangu. Who was Edwin Swales? Was he a Nazi-like white racist, as the ANC loves to portray all whites, past and present, in this country? No. He was white, yes, and he was one of only three South Africans to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War Two, a war fought against Nazism. But the recognition given to white South Africans is the very thing the ANC wants to wipe out.
A somewhat amusing name change, providing a bit of comic relief in the midst of all this, is that proposed for Cowey Road. The proposed new name is Problem Mkhize Road. Mkhize was a former MK commander. In SA, people understand that many blacks are given such names at birth, often according to something that happened during or shortly after the birth, and the man could not help having the name his parents gave him; but to any foreigner, unaware of this, a road named “Problem Mkhize” will be extremely amusing – and bewildering.
These name changes are all shocking, and disgusting to the sensibilities of all decent-minded people; for many of these people were terrorists. But certainly one of the most shocking of all, because of how “close to home” it is for the people of the area, is the proposal to rename Kingsway Road, in Amanzimtoti, as Andrew Zondo Road, in honour of a terrorist bomber who killed five people. He was sentenced to death in 1986 for planting a bomb in a rubbish bin at the Amanzimtoti centre the year before, which killed two women and three children and injured many more. The DA’s caucus leader in Durban, John Steenhuisen, said, “We will be mobilising people to object. The process and choice of many of the names is deliberately provocative.” Speaking about the call to rename Kingsway Road after Zondo, he said, “”It’s almost akin to renaming a street in New York after Osama bin Laden. It’s highly insensitive.” And Tony Leon said, “To append the name of Andrew Zondo to a highway in Amanzimtoti, where this saboteur killed five people in a bomb attack during the 1980s, looks like a calculated slight to the families of his victims.”
The South African Communist Party (SACP), however, voiced its support for renaming the road after Andrew Zondo. It said: “The SACP… regrets the loss of life in the Amanzimtoti bombing. Comrade Andrew Zondo was a member of MK and part of the armed struggle and he undertook his activities at the height of apartheid repression… [He] sacrificed his life in the cause of the national liberation and is to many a hero.” It called on the municipality to educate the public about the “meaning of his activities as contribution to coming to terms with our past.” It added: “We believe there is a need for those who benefitted from apartheid, to reciprocate the generosity shown by those who suffered under apartheid.” What deceivers and doublespeakers Communists always are! They say they regret the loss of life caused by Zondo – yet they call him a hero who gave his life as a “sacrifice”. He didn’t sacrifice his life, he was executed because of his crimes! He murdered five people – and now we’re to believe that he is the hero? What “generosity” did he show to his victims?
Another proposal, to honour a notorious armed robber, murderer and rapist by renaming a road after him, has been met with shock and anger by opposition parties in Durban. His name was S’bu Mkhize, SA’s most wanted man at the time, who carried out a reign of murder, robbery and rape. Although the ANC at the time distanced itself from his crimes, he was particularly brutal when attacking members of the Inkatha Freedom Party, the ANC’s main rival in the province. He and his gang were cornered in a house in Isipingo in 1992. When he was called upon to surrender, he lobbed grenades at the police and his gang opened fire with machine guns. The police brought in armoured vehicles to demolish the house, and he and his gang were killed. At the time of his death, the police had more than 10 warrants of arrest out for him.
And now the ANC in Durban wants to rename the R603 road through Umbumbulu after this gangster – the very area in which he committed most of his crimes! In the words of the IFP’s caucus leader in the Duran municipality, Thembi Nzuza, the IFP is “sickened” by this proposal. “He killed a lot of our people and our supporters, that one. He was a common criminal who preyed on the weak and the old. He was a murderer and a criminal and a robber.”
IFP leader, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, is not one to whom the ANC listens. This is a pity, for he has wisely cautioned what he calls a “gloating” and “disdainful” ANC to be careful about “airbrushing” certain groups, particularly the Afrikaners and the Zulus, out of history, so as to give prominence to ANC-affiliated people alone. He said that name changes should only be done “with regard for the fact that a part of South Africa’s linguistic and cultural heritage traces its roots to white Africans”, namely the Dutch and British immigrants who started arriving at the Cape 350 years ago. Wise words indeed. As history shows with many examples, this kind of blatant cultural obliteration increases bitterness and resentment, and in time it so often leads to yet further uprisings and bloodshed.
But dictatorial leaders never learn from history. When they come to power, they have an opportunity to make all the diverse peoples living within the geographical territory they rule feel welcome, feel as though they have a place in the sun. But they never make use of this opportunity. Instead, they inevitably advance only the interests of their own people at the expense of all others. And as surely as night follows day, this leads to still further resentment, bitterness, animosity, anger, and eventually, bloodshed. English and Afrikaans South Africans may have lost power in SA; they may at the moment be a despised minority in the country they ruled so well for so long; but the resentment, bitterness, frustration and anger is building up all the time, as they see themselves marginalised, their history eradicated, their people murdered and raped. And inevitably, there will be a backlash. It may not occur this year, or next year, or a decade from now, or two decades. But it will inevitably come. This is the nature of men everywhere.
With the Zulus, it may have already started. After these name changes were proposed, thousands of Zulu protesters, wielding sticks, ran through Durban’s city centre, upending dustbins as they went, and causing minor damage. One protester fired shots into the air. Shops were looted. By early afternoon about 10 000 protesters had converged at the city hall. One of the placards read: “Stop naming our streets after your girlfriends!” Another read: “We All Have Our Heroes.” And another: “Who Are These People?” On the same day, Zulu protesters barricaded the Mangosuthu Highway with dustbins and burning tyres. Traffic lights were smashed.
And then there are the proposals for certain streets and roads to be named after Communist revolutionaries and terrorists from other countries as well!
The proposed new name for Kensington Drive, in Durban North, is Fidel Castro Street! Yes – named after the ANC’s big buddy and fellow-Communist, the brutal dictator of Cuba.
Northway, in Durban North, could soon become Kwame Nkrumah Road, named after the brutal first president of Ghana after its independence.
Somtseu Road, it is proposed, should be renamed after Kenneth Kaunda, the Marxist president of Zambia who destroyed his own country, reducing it to ruin in every possible way.
The Higginson Highway may be renamed after no other than Yasser Arafat, the Muslim terrorist leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, one of the ANC’s great allies during their revolution.
Warwick Avenue, in Greyville, may be renamed after Julius Nyerere, the Marxist president of Tanzania whose foolhardy policies reduced that country to utter ruin.
And Moore Road, in Glenwood, could be renamed after Che Guevara, Fidel’s big buddy and a revolutionary thug.
Broadway could become Swapo Road. Swapo is the acronym for the South West African Peoples’ Organisation, the equivalent in South West Africa (now Namibia) of the ANC in South Africa. Swapo conducted its own terror campaign in South West Africa, until the United Nations saw to it that it became the new government of Namibia.
The choice of street names is “a rogue’s gallery of Third World revolutionaries” indeed, in the words of Tony Leon. And the ANC tells the world that SA is a democracy? What a joke. What we are witnessing daily is the sheer arrogance of the ANC, which knows it is in power for many years to come and which loves to throw its weight around, doing what it pleases when it pleases regardless of the consequences. SA is a typical Marxist country now, honouring not only its own terrorist “heroes”, but those of such countries as Cuba, Namibia, and Ghana. White South Africans would never have imagined it possible, back in the 1980s or even the early 1990s, that the day would ever arrive when men such as Castro, Arafat, Biko, Hani, Mandela, etc., the enemies of South Africa and of everything the West stood for, would be honoured in the cities they built. But it has come to pass. The Communist revolution succeeded, not by winning a war, but by treachery, duplicity, and cunning.
In all likelihood, not all of these proposed name changes will eventually be accepted. But the ANC has been very clever. They have deluged Durban residents with 181 proposed name changes. They knew there would be an outcry. But then, when they scale back somewhat, and only bring in, say, 100 name changes, or 130, it makes them look good. It makes it appear as if they “listened to the people”. In truth, however, they still will get their own way. They will scrap a few proposals, but keep the rest, and still “transform” Durban thereby. Yet they will do so in a way that looks (to the ignorant and uninformed) “democratic” and “consultative.”
And as things stand now, other places could soon follow. Will Cape Town, the world famous and beautiful Cape Town, eventually become iKapa? Will Johannesburg (named after another Afrikaner) become “Jozi” or “eGoli”? Will the entire country, in fact, oneday be renamed “Azania”? It is entirely conceivable, for there are many within the ruling party who want it.
There is only one good thing in all this. At least now, as SA’s cities deteriorate further and further under ANC mismanagement, becoming increasingly like all other Third World African slum-cities, the names of those whites who worked so hard, and accomplished so much, in SA will no longer be associated with the disasters which these cities have become, or are in the process of becoming, under black Marxist misrule. At least now, when people visit SA from foreign countries, they will see, on the street signs, the names of the very people who have brought such collapse and ruin to SA! And then they will look around, at the filth in the streets, the crime and grime, the traffic lights that don’t work, the poor starving street children on almost every corner, the prostitutes and pimps, and all of this will be associated with the names of the ANC’s “heroes” on the street signs. They deserve it. The men who, once upon a time, built SA into the great country it was, and the English and Afrikaner peoples they represented, do not deserve to have their names associated with this degradation and mismanagement.
In the city of Standerton, on direct orders of the ANC mayor, the Great Trek Memorial Stone was destroyed. This monument celebrated the 150th commemoration of the Great Trek, a pivotal event in Afrikaner and indeed South African history, when Afrikaners trekked away from the British-ruled Cape to establish themselves in new territory, and thereby contributed immensely to the opening up of the interior of South Africa and the coming of Western civilization to this barbaric part of the world.
No wonder, then, that the ANC hated the monument! At every turn, these black Marxists are faced with the evidences of the wonderful achievements of the English and Afrikaners in South Africa – and it fills them with envy. They well know that nothing they have done equals or excels such achievements. And this envy leads to anger and hatred. They cannot stand these reminders of achievement and excellence.
The mayor, a black woman named Queen Radebe-Khumalo, gave the order for the Memorial Stone’s destruction. It consisted of a granite stone with tracks in cement on it, commemorating the Great Trek. Her words were, “That piece of thing means nothing to us. It is only a piece of cement with tracks on it. I don’t even know where it comes from” (Freedom Front Newsletter 101, dalien@vf.co.za). This reveals not only her hatred for Afrikaner history, but also her ignorance of history. She should stop viewing history merely through the ANC’s lenses, and she might learn something. Fat chance of that happening.
On a national level, the ANC only reacted to the destruction after the Freedom Front Plus, an Afrikaner political party, criticised the ANC’s national leadership over their silence. Smuts Ngonyama, the ANC’s chief spokesman, said in a statement that the ANC would be investigating the incident, “because the ANC is not here to destroy anyone’s history” (Freedom Front Newsletter 101). If this were true, then the Memorial Stone would not have been destroyed on the orders of an ANC mayor! But the real truth lies in the fact that the ANC is interested in preserving only the history of its own people, and of its Marxist terrorist campaign against the previous white government of SA. In true Communist fashion, they use doublespeak, saying one thing for public consumption but quite another thing to their own followers and comrades.
Dr Pieter Mulder, the Freedom Front Plus leader, said correctly: “President Mbeki and the ANC leadership’s silence, following the destruction of the Memorial Stone in Standerton, was seen by the Afrikaner community as passive approval of the actions. If these kinds of actions are not condemned by leaders on a national level, such as President Mbeki, it could lead to reciprocal damaging of communities’ cultural goods. It will be destructive for relations in South Africa.” Precisely. This deliberate destruction of the history, and the monuments to that history, of white South Africans, is only going to breed bitterness, resentment, and eventually – rebellion. It is always so. Instead of making SA a country where all its citizens feel at home, the ANC is concentrating solely on the black nations, and doing all it can to obliterate the two white nations. It is accomplishing this through the marginalisation of whites in the workplace and in every other sphere, the destruction of all records of their great history, and the deliberate genocide of their farmers.
The Freedom Front Plus also lodged a complaint with the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Language Communities about the destruction of the memorial. “Irrespective of the reaction of the ANC, the FF Plus is continuing with its complaint. We are convinced that the Mayor of Standerton and the provincial ANC have contravened the Constitution with the order to destroy the Great Trek Memorial Stone,” said Mulder. To date, the FF Plus is disappointed with the way in which the Commission has undertaken its duties. It is their work to protect communities’ language and cultural goods.
It is not surprising that the Commission, appointed as it was under the ANC, is, like so much else emanating from the ANC, an organisation that operates according to double standards. All these high-sounding commissions, all these pieces of constitutional legislation, look very good on paper, and give the impression to the outside world that the ANC is committed to a constitutional democracy, the rule of law, the equal and fair treatment of all citizens, etc., etc. But the reality on the ground is far, far different. Even if the Commission actually does something about this mayor and her destruction of a monument to Afrikaner history, no one should be fooled into believing that the ANC is really committed to such ideals. They may indeed act this time, merely because there has been some focus on this and that is potentially embarrassing to them. But if so they will act reluctantly, and only because they want to save face. They do not have the interests of Afrikaners or English South Africans at heart, and they will continue with their insidious campaign to obliterate the history of the two white nations in SA.
Unless white South Africans wake up and take notice, and stand up for what is right, by making use of all legal methods, the process will continue. All white South Africans need to stand up and be counted, and say to this Marxist organisation, “Thus far and no further! We are citizens of this country, with as much right to be here as anyone else!” If this is not done, very soon the records of our great past here at the southern tip of Africa will be gone, and we ourselves will be even more at the mercy of these Marxist thugs than ever before. It is not too late, but time is running out.
Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel, and lives in South Africa. He runs Bible Based Ministries.
There are few denials these days, if any, that in most Western countries a cultural war rages, characterized by an intense and sometimes very personal disagreement involving politicians, intellectuals, activists and an assortment of ideologues. This war, or rather these wars, have been raging for some time already, at least since the Second World War. Their origins can be traced back to the intellectual legacy of a little-known Italian communist who lived in the first half of the twentieth century.
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