Renaming threats slated
AIRPORTS Company South Africa (Acsa) slammed those behind the chaos during a public consultation session at Cape Town International Airport on Monday, saying they would not be threatened during the course of the renaming process.
“Decisions on a new airport name will not be influenced by threats or based on who shouted the loudest. Views expressed at consultation meetings do not constitute a binding vote on the name to be selected,” said Acsa.
The public has until midnight to make submissions for new names for East London Airport, Port Elizabeth International Airport and Kimberley Airport, which will be renamed as part of the government’s Transformation of Heritage Landscape programme.
Acsa said the public consultation meeting on Monday evening was attended by about 800 people, and was “properly concluded in spite of demonstrations that disrupted proceedings for a period”.
Verbal clashes ensued when supporters of the name “Krotoa” and those in favour of Struggle icon ma Winnie Madikizela-Mandela each wanted to voice their opinions.
Cape Town International Airport spokesperson Deidre Davids said there were many in attendance who had come to make their representations peacefully and co-operatively.
“There were others who appeared to have come with the specific intention to disrupt the meeting.
‘‘When the intention of the meeting was disregarded and when other attendees were threatened, it was imperative that Airports Company South Africa protect the integrity of the consultation and the safety of those in attendance. The meeting was therefore declared closed until the disruptors had agreed to proceed in a more respectful manner,” she said.
Both the EFF and members of the Khoi community said the meeting was poorly organised and the facilitator was ill-equipped to deal with the crowd.
EFF provincial chairperson Bernard Joseph said if the facilitator had handled the crowd differently, there would not have been any issue.
“The meeting was positive. The only challenge was the fact that the facilitator was inexperienced in terms of handling such a big crowd. If she had handled it differently, the control aspect would’ve been in place.
“It was a public participation process, but she was deliberately giving certain groupings more of an opportunity.”
Joseph said the EFF was in support of renaming the airport after maWinnie as she was “a liberator and fought the good fight for the people of the Western Cape and South Africa as a whole”.
An adviser to the Griqua Royal House, Peter Marais, said the facilitator was out of her depth.
“A member of the Khoisan group went up and said Winnie had no connection to the Cape, and if the Khoisan aren’t recognised, then there will be war.”
Members of other groups calling for Krotoa’s name also went up and expressed their disagreement with any choice other than Krotoa, Marais said.
Subsequently, the Khoisan representatives went to the front of the meeting and held up a banner bearing Krotoa’s face.
“The EFF saw this and forced their way through us and stood in front of the banner. We then moved to another side,” Marais said.
The SACP in the Western Cape condemned what they called “the lumpen behaviour, anarchy, thuggery and intimidation” at the meeting.
“For the record, the SACP in the Western Cape made its submission at the hearings and proposed the name of Chris Hani.
‘‘The SACP will not undermine the processes of democracy for narrow ends, and trusts that neither the media nor the responsible agencies, nor anyone else, will sacrifice the fairness of the process for renaming Cape Town International Airport to mob intimidation,” said SACP provincial spokesperson Zuko Mndayi.
Proposals can be submitted by e-mail to corporate.affairs@airports.co.za or airportnamechange@chand.co.za
They can also be hand-delivered to the Airports Company South Africa offices at the nearest airport or SMSes can be sent to 079 947 7410.