Changing of names helps SA heal

SOUTH Africa continues to have many untransformed place names and these, it is argued (by Denver Webb of the Nelson Mandela University), are “an affront to the dignity of the majority of people in this country” as they are a continuous reminder of old colonial and apartheid power relations.

With this in mind, one must welcome a number of important events last week which take South Africa’s transformation agenda forward: Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo ruled that the gratuitous display of the old South African flag amounts to hate speech, Unisa renamed its main campus buildings, and a school in Pretoria changed its name.

Unisa said naming and renaming of facilities “captures the university’s “spirit of renewal and transformation”. Most prominently, its most recognisable building, named after apartheid-era vice-chancellor Theo van Wijk, has been renamed after Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

In his address to welcome a school name-change from Hendrik Verwoerd to Rietondale High, the Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, spoke of his department’s commitment to get rid of all offensive signs of apartheid at places of learning, and called for a public debate on colonial and apartheid symbols.

Considering that Hendrik Verwoerd has been dubbed the “architect of apartheid” and his attitude favoured an education system designed to benefit the white child and keep the black child down, it is surprising it has taken this long for the school to change its name.

Hopefully, these changes will encourage other institutions to come to grips with the impact of the names they continue to carry and accelerate the process to change them.

To achieve this is not only an administrative task, but one which requires the political will of the authorities as well as society as a whole. If we are to build our nation, we must get rid of the names and symbols which are a constant and painful reminder of the past and replace them with something which has meaning to all.

Although changing a name does not in itself change a school, university or even a town, it signals the willingness to change, and that is a start when it comes to nation building.