Name changes 'make us African'

Geez ... I'm seeing the word "alleged" in there again ... I'm gonna move that they strike it from the dictionary ... it gets used too much in this country :rolleyes:
 
shadowfox said:
Geez ... I'm seeing the word "alleged" in there again ... I'm gonna move that they strike it from the dictionary ... it gets used too much in this country :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

shadowfax, that word grates me as badly as anyone, but for a change it was used appropriately, wasn't it? :D
 
Last edited:
koffiejunkie said:
He he, just imagine tourists reading names off the new maps and asking locals for directions. Like everybody is going to know all the new names.
Click to expand...

This has already happened to me in Potch when I was trying to help some visitors get to the Uni. on the phone. I didn't know where the recently renamed street was that they were referring to, so we had to go by landmarks :rolleyes:.

AFAIK they're going to use the same trick in Potch that they pulled with Pretoria by renaming the metro and not the city itself. I guess we'll have a few more signs being fished out of the Mooi river as "evidence" against those "racial anarchists" again :p. (Note: I do not condone vandalism of public property.)

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=316424&area=/insight/insight__national/

My impression of the street renaming in Potch is that they kept the really big names (Sisulu, Biko etc.) for Kerk and Tom streets, (the names seemed innocuous enough), and some less famous ones for other streets. What this says to me is that, at some level, there *is* an element of spite in their agenda. Perhaps Aardklop will reveal more of this is if last years posturing is anything to go by.
 
Last edited:
“The ‘venom-spitting’ Kaiser Mohau [Potchefstroom’s city council spokesperson] says emergency services cannot find houses, because the signs are stolen,” says Mokobane. “But what about Ikageng? People have to go out at night to direct ambulances to their homes, because for years there have been no street names in many parts here.”
Click to expand...

Why not name street names in Ikageng (the black township) instead of renaming Tom Straat, which is an institution in itself?

The council says they want to restore our dignity with the name change, but people will have dignity only if they can sit on a proper toilet.”
Click to expand...

9000 people in Potch do not even have a bucket system. They need to go in to the veld.

The people of Ikageng don't want the new houses built by the ANC, because the toilet is in the kitchen, if you open the door to it, it hits the kitchen sink.

Some of the new street name poles were stolen or vandalised as soon as they were erected. Mohau has sent scathing statements about “racial anarchists”. He says the council has budgeted R235 000 for the name change, but erecting and cleaning the vandalised signs will cost the Potchefstroom taxpayers R26 000.
Click to expand...

A new house costs about R31000. The R235000 does not take in to account the loss of tourism, the expense to businesses either, 235 is only the cost to the municipality.

“We do not deny that in the apartheid years the heroes of the blacks in town were ignored,” says Cilliers. “But now we get the idea that it is a case of ‘now that we are in control, we will show you Afrikaners.’”

Business people, such as developer Jannie van Schalkwyk, are worried they will have to carry the cost of name changes and believe it is “a form of taxation for the past”. He estimates the cost of the name changes to be as high as R300million.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind the university also built its brand on the name Potchefstroom and that the students are the centre of the economy in Potch. During holidays nothing but nothing happens there.
So 300million is 9677 houses for the 9000 people without toilets.
 
Last edited:
fskmh said:
This has already happened to me in Potch when I was trying to help some visitors get to the Uni. on the phone. I didn't know where the recently renamed street was that they were referring to, so we had to go by landmarks :rolleyes:.
Click to expand...

Last time I was there (first time in many years) I was thankful for the street names still being the same, since just about everything else had changed so much. Cricket Stadium? Holiday Inn? Nando's? Are you kidding me?

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=316424&area=/insight/insight__national/

He believes that the majority of the town’s 250 000 people support the name change.

“We have a petition with 70 000 names on it,” he says. “Only a minority of people are opposed to the name.
Click to expand...

Eish. How did 70,000 out of 250,000 become a majority?

Why, for instance, was a local hero like Hezekiel Sepeng ignored?
Click to expand...

Excellent point. This is not about honorouring heroes. This is purely about pissing all over the Afrikaner's heritage, especially in a place like Potchefstroom.
 
shadowfox said:
So what does Tklokwe mean ... is it perhaps referring to another animal's balls?
Click to expand...
There is a brand of sorghum beer by that name too... :D

Of it's OK to change place names, forced personal name changes are probably also in the pipeline for the near future - Schoeman becoming Mandela or Pretorius becoming Mbeki, etc.
Changing a name makes one African just as going to church makes one a Christian or sitting on a driveway makes you a car... :rolleyes:
 
Not sure about this (referring to thread title). If I change my name to Thabo I would just be a white guy with an African name - not an African.
 
lsuacner said:
Some towns were named by the British, let us keep in mind what the British did to the Afrikaners and how we responded as a government towards "offensive" names.
Click to expand...

I don't understand your point. British town, street and even city names are everywhere. East London, Port Elizabeth, New Castle, Dundee, Howick etc.
 
Cataphract said:
I don't understand your point. British town, street and even city names are everywhere. East London, Port Elizabeth, New Castle, Dundee, Howick etc.
Click to expand...

Exactly, the previous government did not change the names when they took over from the British. Take in to account the torture Afrikaners were put through under the British. Apartheid was bad, concentration camps were worse. Afrikaners were mature enough to let it be, instead they focussed on ensuring the welfare of their people, unlike the ANC which ensures it alone gets richer.
 
BobbyMac said:
It does not! it's actually: Tweebuffelsmeteenskootdoodgeskietfontein

We drove through there a few months ago ;)
Click to expand...

Uhuh? Verrrry interesting. GPS coordinates? Photographs?

Because the name I've heard has a "morsdood" in there and the best reference I could find was that it used to be a farm in the Marico or somewhere... not a town.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Tlokwe is supposedly derived from the "Batlokwe" people who allegedly lived there at some point. Having studied the history of Potch to some extent, I have yet to see any evidence of this.

The only "Tlokwe" I know of is the beer :)
Click to expand...

Well according to legend, Thlokwe means little valley. The hills in which Fochville is situated, is called Thlokwe, guess what thats about 35 kilometers from potch, oh yes and another little tidbit they missed, The original location of potch, is about 15 kilometers from the current location, and the original locations is about 45 kilos from the hills around fochville.

But never let trivialities like facts, stand in the ANC's way when they are renaming everything
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X