ROW OVER BID FOR NEW NAME FOR PROVINCE
THE ANC ’ s North West chief whip, Hofmann Galeng, has rejected suggestions that changing the name of North West province to Moses Kotane will need extra money.
“There is no single project or programme which will be replaced in favour of the renaming of the province, there is no extra money needed whatsoever, ” Galeng said.
He was replying to the presentations made by DA leader Chris Hattingh and EFF ’ Alfred Motsi during the provincial legislature debate on name change yesterday in Mahikeng.
The two opposition parties were opposing the suggestion to change the name of the province, saying the energy and money could be used to improve service delivery.
“The issue of costs is not there; it ’ s unfortunate that, yes, we are trapped, we do have slow learners but I never thought to the extent of these honourable members here,” Galeng said.
The suggestion to rename the province after Kotane, late SACP and ANC Struggle icon, was made by premier Supra Mahumapelo while delivering his state of the province address in March.
Galeng also slammed the EFF ’ s campaign against apartheid-era memorials. He said the EFF was wasting energy over the statues.
“They cannot tell us that when we are to change the name of the province we will be wasting our energy, ” Galeng said.
In response, Motsi said his party had nothing personal against Moses Kotane but felt that naming the province under an individual ’ s name was a problem.
“If the province has to be changed, it must be named after something different other than somebody ’ s name,” Motsi said.
Hattingh believes the suggestion to rename the province was a ploy to initiate a 2016 local government elections rally for ANC support.
“The province is falling apart, this is the weakest performing province in the country, ” Hattingh said.
He said the ANC in North West was in decline and a serious process to change the name of a province should not be used to score electoral points.
Hattingh said this would cost the province billions of rands across all the departments, local business and industry.
Members of the provincial legislature are expected to vote on the name change in the next legislature sitting.