Madam Speaker, the purpose of reviewing geographic and place names is indeed to promote reconciliation and nation- building in our society. It is necessarily so that a process of renaming has to be inclusive and take into consideration the views of communities, including concerns that some of them may have.
As hon members are aware, the responsibility for street names and many local, geographic and other entities resides within the jurisdiction of the provincial and local governments. In taking these important decisions, these spheres of government are expected to be guided by the principles enshrined in the Constitution and relevant legislation. We do recognise that matters such as these do not necessarily lend themselves to consensual decision-making and will indeed generate intense debate. As such, those in possession of authority do carry the responsibility to ensure that their decisions reflect not only the views of the majority, but also evince reasonable levels of sensitivity and sensibility.
I am informed, hon member, that with regard to the specific question of the highway to which you refer, representatives of the ANC and the IFP in the eThekwini Council are interacting to try and find an amicable solution to this issue. We would want to encourage that. We therefore wish to call upon all of those entrusted with this responsibility of renaming streets and other geographical entities, the eThekwini Metropolitan Council included, to ensure that the decisions that they take indeed serve to achieve as much unity as possible.
In that spirit of inclusivity and nation-building, we would want to encourage representatives of the ANC and the IFP in the eThekwini Council to use the interactive meetings taking place between the two political parties to discuss this very issue of renaming streets in the metro and also to discuss the matter of the Mangosuthu Highway and see whether an amicable solution can be found. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr President, for your response. I just want to preface my contribution, firstly, by saying that it is a pity that the President actually has not been given accurate information with regard to the interactions he is referring to between the two parties. As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of any discussions or meeting of any sort between the IFP and the ANC at whatever level with regard to this matter.
I do want to say, though, that arising from the President's comments, I would actually like to make a follow-up question and say that the President, in the course of his reply to my question last year, made a specific undertaking whereby he was going to dispatch two Ministers, the Minister of Arts and Culture and the Minister for Provincial and Local Government, to the eThekwini Municipality to mediate in the dispute because Cabinet was fully in agreement with us that the right processes had not been followed.
Would the hon President be able to tell us how far this mediation has progressed? Furthermore, we would also like to know when we can expect the Cabinet to table before the nation the proposals and guidelines on the street-renaming that was promised by the hon President during his reply on 21 May 2007.
First of all, let me say thank you very much to the hon Mncwango for raising this matter about whether any discussions are in fact taking place. I was indeed informed, hon Mncwango, that there are such discussions as I have indicated. I will follow up on that matter because in any case that response was based on the recognition that there does need to be such interactions. I will certainly follow up on this because I had no reason not to believe what we were told in this regard.
Indeed, we discussed this matter of ministerial interaction, hon member. To some extent I was actually surprised that this matter came up again, because I had thought it would have set in place the processes which would assist the people in the eThekwini Municipality to resolve these matters. So, clearly, something didn't produce the results that were intended. So, we will have to go back to this matter.
With regard to the proposals from the Minister of Arts and Culture, I am not quite certain, to tell you the truth, as to how far we are with regard to the preparation of those proposals. I will have to check that with Minister Pallo Jordan. Thanks, Madam Speaker.
Hon President, the DA's position on renaming is committed to nation-building and we believe that South Africa should be shared by all our people. When we choose names that are aimed at reflecting our past histories, struggle and internal heroes, cultural, political and sporting icons, we should be choosing names that will truly seek to heal and unite communities rather than give offence to sections of the community or promote a single sector of the populace.
Currently in the eThekwini Council, by far, the overwhelming number of names recognises activists and members of a single political party only and originates from the headquarters of this political party. In fact, 126 of the 171 original names were proposed by the ANC region.
Madam Speaker, through you to the President, it has been a year since the last question - and Minister Mufamadi is never in the country anyway - will you therefore kindly agree to urgently intervene in the decisions being taken by the local structures in your party so that they would, and I quote from your answer on 31 May: "...not just deal with positions of dominant political formations." Thank you.
Madam Speaker, as I said to hon Mncwango just now, I will certainly follow up on this matter and even on the information we were given that an interaction was taking place to sort it out. As I said, it was based on the recognition of the need to do that interaction. So we will certainly continue to engage this matter, bearing in mind all of the challenges in this regard. One of the things, of course, that needs to be done is to respect what the law says with regard to all of this, but certainly we will continue to interact with the metro council to see how this matter can be resolved. Thanks.
Mr President, national and social cohesion cannot be promoted by violent protests of interaction by supporters of political parties in pursuit of their demands. The ANC family believes that the issue of name-changes is a reality which must be dealt with according to the procedure you explained.
However, Mr President, what will your comment therefore be on the fact that all political parties have to deal with the issue responsibly and in a mature manner because the process of naming or renaming places, while it conforms to national legislation underpinning that process, will not be a perfect one, given our difficult past? I thank you.
I cannot but agree with the hon member with regard to all of her observations. I think we have agreed before that, obviously, this is not a very easy matter. It naturally and necessarily raises all sorts of passions and indeed needs what she has called for - that it must be approached with a responsible attitude and in a mature manner. I really do want to agree fully with her with regard to all of those things, including the observation that she has made that certainly nobody should think that they have the right to resort to violent means in order to express their views and grievances and so on. That clearly is wrong. None of us can approve of that, and I am sure none of us do approve of that.
More generally, I think this is something that must be worrying all of us because there are too many of these kinds of instances where there are demonstrations of one kind or another that degenerate into this kind of violence, such as looting and breaking into of shops and all sorts of things. I think all of us must be worried. That must not become an entrenched part of the practise of political expression in this country. So I am sure that all of us here as leaders would want to make sure that we educate the people whom we lead and mobilise them away from resorting to violence in a democratic society. So surely we have to approach what is a sensitive matter with the sense of responsibility and maturity that the hon member indicates. Thanks, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, I just want to ask whether it is not our responsibility to conduct our issues in a manner which is not provocative because provocation is not an unlimited issue. People have the capacity to take it up to a certain extent. Is it not actually our responsibility to act in such a manner that will enumerate issues so that we can come to a conclusion which will actually enable us to be proud of our place?
Hon Sibuyana has clearly spoken as the mature elder that he is. I think with regard to this whole issue, as the hon member was saying earlier, given our history, this is not an easy issue. So, quite obviously, as we approach it, we must indeed avoid acting in what he described as a provocative manner. It is very easy to say things and do things that come across as provocative. The point that was raised earlier is an example. One might think that a name like "makwerekwere" has been in such long usage that it is okay, but indeed it may very well be provocative. So I agree, hon member. But thank you very much for that piece of wisdom. Thanks a lot, Madam Speaker. [Applause.]
See also QUESTIONS AND REPLIES.
Business suspended at 16:03 and resumed at 16:17.