Alex Heroes Honoured
Alex Stadium and six Streets in Alexandra, in the north of Joburg,
are to be renamed. A full sitting of the council approved the
proposals on new names. This comes after the township's Zone 13
approached the City to honour certain people who had played a major
role in developing the township in the fields of sport, education,
politics, culture, social life and business. The street signs will
be officially unveiled on Saturday, 25 October 2008.
- Vasco da Gama Street will be renamed after the prominent
activist Florence Moposho. Florence Moposho, who died in exile
in 1985, was the first woman elected to the ANC national committee
from Alexandra. She participated in many political activities in the
township, including the bus boycotts of the 1950s. When the ANC was
banned she went into exile and rose up the party's ranks until she
was elected to the national executive at the Morogoro Conference in
1969, a position she held till her death.
Originally from the Free State, Moposho's family settled in
Alexandra in 1912 and still resides in the township.
- Hofmeyr Street will be renamed Richard Baloyi Street,
recognised as one of the martyrs of the Alex bus boycott, A
prominent businessman in the township, Baloyi lived in Second
Avenue. He played a leading role in the area's civic matters,
contributing to its general governance and fighting against the
injustices meted out to Africans.
He died in 1962 after playing a huge part in reshaping Alex.
- Selborne Street will be renamed after Reverend Sam Buti,
in recognition for his role in the "Save Alexandra" campaign, which
ended victoriously in 1979, Buti played a prominent role in a
campaign to look for alternative shelter when Alex was condemned to
extinction by a parliamentary resolution in 1958.
The programme to evict all Alex residents started in the 1960s, when
people were forcibly removed to Tembisa, Diepkloof, Meadowlands and
later to Klipspruit. Other forced removals happened in the mid-1970s
to hostels in Johannesburg. In these removals women and children
were sent to "homelands" or Bantustans, far away from their husbands
and fathers, and work opportunities.
With the support of the student movement, the Alexandra Student
League, Buti mobilised support to help feed and provide necessities
such as blankets, clothes and mattresses for affected families. He
also helped residents to acquire identity documents, known as dompas,
which allowed blacks to stay in the cities. This culminated in the
"Save Alexandra" campaign with mass meetings, petitions and protests
that drew international attention and forced the apartheid regime to
negotiate.
Buti is still alive. The City's naming and renaming policy states
that names of living people should be avoided and only in
exceptional cases will these be considered.
- Roosevelt Street is to be renamed after Alfred Nzo.
Alfred Nzo was the longest serving secretary-general of the ANC, a
resident of Alex in the 1950s and 60s and a community activist. Born
in 1925 in Benoni, Nzo was active in the health committee, which ran
the civic administration of Alex before the Peri-Urban
Administrative Board took over. Nzo also participated in civic
matters and the Alex bus boycott.
He went into exile in 1964 and was elected secretary-general of the
party at the Morogoro Conference in Tanzania. Along with Oliver
Tambo, he is seen as one of the architects of the ANC in exile.
After the first democratic elections in 1994, Nzo became the first
minister of foreign affairs. He died in 2000.
- Rooth Street is to be renamed after Josias Madzunya, one
of the most prominent political activists to emerge from Alex in the
1950s was Josias Madzunya. Well-known for his trademark long coat he
wore whether it was hot or cold, Madzunya was active in the ANC and
formed part of the Alexandra and Transvaal leadership.
However, he broke away from the ANC and became a founding member of
the Pan African Congress in 1959, together with Robert Sobukwe and
others.
Madzunya participated in the 1950s defiance campaigns against
apartheid evils such as Bantu education and laws that excluded
blacks from entering certain places. He was arrested many times and
banished to Venda in what is now Limpopo province. He remained
militant and a leader in the PAC until his death in the early 1970s.
- London Road will be renamed after Vincent Tshabalala, a
student and youth activist and intellectual. Born in 1964,
Tshabalala was one of the martyrs of the struggle. He left the
country in 1983 and joined the ranks of Umkhonto we Sizwe, later
returning on military and underground missions in the country. He
was sold out and was killed in a street battle with the police at
the corner of London Road and 12th Avenue in 1985.
- Alex stadium will be renamed after Meshack Kunene.
Meshack Kunene, twenty three , was killed by security police on 30
June during a welcome rally for the ANC Secretary-General, Mr.
Alfred Nzo.
For further information please contact:
Ms Graca Dos Santos
Alexandra Renewal Project
Communications Manager
Tel. 011 531 5500
Graca.dosSantos@gauteng.gov.za
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