JIA name officially changed - apparently

Should government steer clear of all political names when renaming national assets?

  • Yes

    Votes: 72 90.0%

  • No

    Votes: 5 6.3%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 3 3.8%
  • Total voters
    80
'We are being erased'

'We are being erased'

The airport, originally named after the Afrikaner premier Jan Smuts before being simply called Johannesburg International, will be rebaptised as OR Tambo Airport on Thursday in memory of the late ANC leader.

But while the government is keen to honour one of its own, the move has infuriated some Afrikaners, who claim it breaches a deal made after the first multi-racial elections.
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The name change is today.
RIP JIA
 
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I was most pleasantly surprised when I drove into work a few days ago and saw the signs proudly displaying O R Tambo Int'l - I still smile every time I see it, a hero remembered at last
 
One man's hero is another man's enemy - all depends on which side you're batting for. In any case I couldn't really be bothered about the name change, as long as they start delivering services as quickly as they had the name changed.
 
xtermin8or said:
I was most pleasantly surprised when I drove into work a few days ago and saw the signs proudly displaying O R Tambo Int'l - I still smile every time I see it, a hero remembered at last
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Did you feel the same when it was Jan Smuts?
 
xtermin8or said:
I was most pleasantly surprised when I drove into work a few days ago and saw the signs proudly displaying O R Tambo Int'l - I still smile every time I see it, a hero remembered at last
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just curios, if a person requires some form of memorial/statue/etc. to be remembered, where they really a hero? this has nothing to do with tambo....just a remark in general.

mandela doesn't need statues, etc....he will be remembered regardless of this.

i think there are a lot of people being called "heroes" lately....if it wasn't for the fact that these tributes have been bestowed with their name.....no one would remember...because it wasn't really significant what they did. not deserving of hero status in my mind
 
@ icyrus - yes, I have said before that Jan Smuts was one of the greatest statesmen of all time

@ simple simon - it is something that makes me ( and I believe most South Africans feel proud ) every country has statues, memorials, etc. dedicated to national heroes - it also serves an educational purpose I want my children to know who O R Tambo was, I also want them to know who Jan Smuts, Piet Retief, and Paul Kruger was

If they take the statue of Oom Paul down I (believe it or not) will be upset unless of course they replace it with a huge currie cup - after all the trophy belongs here permanently :D
 
lets take china for example....every time there was a dynasty change...the new dynasty would destroy every building, statue, etc. that represented the previous dynasty....there would be no physical trace of the previous dynasty that remains. but still chinese people know and remember their previous heros....why? because those truly deserving of memory...were remembered.
 
in addition - the naming of buildings, building of memorials and statues etc. are in the main as a tribute to the person, it is honouring the person - yes, people will remember Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo, Smuts, Chris Barnard and all the others, good and bad, but we must honour them
 
xtermin8or said:
in addition - the naming of buildings, building of memorials and statues etc. are in the main as a tribute to the person, it is honouring the person - yes, people will remember Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo, Smuts, Chris Barnard and all the others, good and bad, but we must honour them
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thats where i have the problem..."must honour them". i've never considered myself part of the sheeple in this country. when does this honouring end...or more importantly when is it going to start being abused.

for example...when the sad day comes that mandela dies....and then later on politicians start saying things like "mandela would want it this way or thay way"...to achieve their agendas.

believe me those days are coming.

just look at the "war veterans" situation up north.

this is the downside to "must honour them" mentality. rather leave the honour as a personal thing....true hereo's are rembered and honoured anyway and must never be politicised
 
so you are saying there should be no memorials in the country, as people can just remember, so we should implode the Voortrekker Monument, blow up the Taalmonument, take down the statue of Paul Kruger and so on and so on
 
how is an airport a monument? i think this has been an argument all along.

what i would like to see is a monument to the new age south africa. nothing along these lines has been done..

the taal monument recognised a significant event...afrikaans language, etc.

voortrekker monument...people trying to move away from the english

paul kruger...first president of an independent sa.

we need one to symbolise the transition we've gone/going through....a truely democratic sa.

not some fricking airport renaming
 
simple_simon said:
how is an airport a monument? i think this has been an argument all along.

what i would like to see is a monument to the new age south africa. nothing along these lines has been done..
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thats a good idea and it will also create jobs in the process, but its much easier to take the taal monument or voortrekker monument and rename it.
 
simple_simon said:
how is an airport a monument? i think this has been an argument all along.

what i would like to see is a monument to the new age south africa. nothing along these lines has been done..

the taal monument recognised a significant event...afrikaans language, etc.

voortrekker monument...people trying to move away from the english

paul kruger...first president of an independent sa.

we need one to symbolise the transition we've gone/going through....a truely democratic sa.

not some fricking airport renaming
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an airport named after a national hero is a means of honouring someone, in the same way that the Afrikaaners built the Voortrekkermonument and the Taalmonument, or statues of various leaders.

A monument to symbolise our transition, it's been done and is being done - ever heard about - the Apartheid Museum, Freedom Park, Constitutional Hill to name but a few
 
xtermin8or said:
an airport named after a national hero is a means of honouring someone, in the same way that the Afrikaaners built the Voortrekkermonument and the Taalmonument, or statues of various leaders.

A monument to symbolise our transition, it's been done and is being done - ever heard about - the Apartheid Museum, Freedom Park, Constitutional Hill to name but a few
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the airport is a fricking building....mostly where people get irratated in....its not a work of art....such as the taal monument and voortrekker..etc.

those three things you mentioned...are not monuments...they're buildings used on a dailly basis.

we need something, one symbol.....like the statue of liberty, eifel tower...etc. doesn't have to be that big...but you get the idea.

and it can't be of a specific person
 
simple_simon said:
the airport is a fricking building....mostly where people get irratated in....its not a work of art....such as the taal monument and voortrekker..etc.

those three things you mentioned...are not monuments...they're buildings used on a dailly basis.

we need something, one symbol.....like the statue of liberty, eifel tower...etc. doesn't have to be that big...but you get the idea.

and it can't be of a specific person
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let govt announce they will be building a monument to commemorate the 94 elections, and you will say they are just wasting money, people will remember the elections, but now you complain because constitutional hill and freedom park are monuments that serve a purpose, come on - BTW - what is the difference between the Voortrekkermonument and the Apartheid museum - as museums ( ah yes, the Apartheid museum is interactive and alot more interesting than some carvings on a wall, and a ossewa )
 
simple_simon said:
and it can't be of a specific person
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and I see you still want references to specific people to be removed, fine then we will remove all statues, including Paul Kruger, Andries Pretorius et al, and rename streets like Hendrik Verwoerd Avenue, and Jan Smuts, and Nelson Mandela and Beyers Naude -
 
xtermin8or said:
let govt announce they will be building a monument to commemorate the 94 elections, and you will say they are just wasting money
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No I would say that wasting money is the renaming of existing buildings and places. World atlases and road signs etc also need to be changed. Building new monuments to commemorate recent achievements as well as past "heroes" will cost only a fraction of what they're currently doing. Apart from that, they went back on a deal to keep the name of airports neutral and representative of the geographical area, which IMO is both unethical and full of ****. PS: no politician will ever be my hero, I don't idolise people let alone politicians.
 
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