Gayton McKenzie sensible on street renaming?

Sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie is a soundbite addict, chasing around to find issues to catapult his name on to the front pages – but, sometimes, he does make sense.

His latest contribution is on the controversial topic of street renaming, as the ANC and the DA are squaring up in Johannesburg over whether or not to change Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive.

McKenzie revealed that, as minister, he had turned down a request from the Free State to change a street name, because there had not been sufficient public consultation.

That is the DA’s exact argument about why the Sandton Drive change should not go through and the party claims there is massive opposition to the idea from residents in the area.

He told parliament this week street names should not be changed out of malice or revenge against white people.

“You must be honest, you must not do it out of revenge, you must not want to hurt people,” he said.

On the other hand, he also made a pertinent observation that some names had to change because of the country’s “troubled history”.

“You cannot expect black people who lived through apartheid to live on a street called ‘Verwoerd’,” he said.

These are sensible points, as well as a plea for give and take when it comes to acknowledging that history, on both sides, cannot be ignored.

However, it seems that it is more than history that is motivating the ANC’s move to change the Sandton name. Khaled is a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and an implacable opponent of the West.

The ANC clearly wants to thumb its nose at the US, whose Joburg consulate will have to change its street address to include the name of a so-called terrorist.

That sounds a bit vindictive, doesn’t it, Mr McKenzie?