Nadat verskeie briewe aan die Switserse regering en plaaslike regering gerig is oor die blatante anti-Afrikaanse houding wat uit die onlangse naamsverandering van Krugerstraat in St. Gallen na vore gekom het, het Praag die onderstaande brief ontvang:
Dear Mrs. Roodt
I received your mail of 10th June 2009 from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs 17th July 2009. I came back from my summer holidays only yesterday so that an answer to your mail from my part wasn't yet possible.
The name "Krügerstrasse" has led to several discussions and political actions in the past in the City of St.Gallen. The street was named "Krügerstrasse" apparently in the year 1904, the year when Paul Kruger died in Switzerland, in Clarens, in the French Speaking part of the country. It was the council of the village of Straubenzell which decided. The village of Straubenzell became, in the year 1918, part of the City of St.Gallen. It seems that the authorities of the village of Straubenzell in those times had the intention to honour Paul Kruger as hero of independence against mighty Great Britain. Today the name Kruger is strongly connected with the colonisation of South Africa and with the suppression of the coloured people.
There was suppression of black people by Afrikaaners who thought black people not being on the same level as white people. One can't only see and honour the struggle against British colonialism; there was also a Dutch colonialism. One can't see the history of the own country only in the role as victims, but not in the role as committers.
With kind regards,
Manfred Linke
Dr. Manfred Linke
Stadtschreiber
Rathaus
9001 St.Gallen
Telefon 071 224 53 22
Fax 071 224 57 01