The City of Cape Town is currently finalising its public participation programme for the naming of streets, public spaces and Council owned facilities. Public meetings are scheduled to be held on 6, 13, 20 and 27 March 2012.

Ward councillors, community organisations and sectoral interest groups will be involved. Interested parties will also be able to participate through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The aim will be to explain the reasons for the proposed street naming and to interact more closely with the communities affected in order to solicit more informed comment.

The City's Public Participation Unit has been tasked with ensuring that the process is as thorough and inclusive as possible. Internal Council structures such as subcouncils and ward committees will form part of the participatory process.

The final naming recommendations will go before the Mayoral Committee in May 2012.

Speaking at the Council meeting on 25 January, Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de Lille, said the naming process would foster inclusion and "deal with addressing another painful aspect of our past".

Among the street names that will be under consideration are contentious ones such as Hendrik Verwoerd Drive and NY 1 (Native Yard).

The public meetings will deal with the proposed naming of seven major roads and arterial routes which cut across multiple subcouncils and wards, thereby impacting more people. These are: Hendrik Verwoerd Drive; Jip de Jager Street; Willie van Schoor Drive; Vanguard Drive; Lansdowne Road; Jan Smuts Drive and NY1.

A more localised public participation process will be used for 27 roads, Council owned facilities or public spaces.

Under consideration will be the sensitivity of the current and proposed names, the impact of the naming on businesses and other organisations, and the effect of the process on residents. The City's naming process has been a long and comprehensive one, with the 31 proposals from the previous committee, headed by Rhoda Kadalie, being under consideration. The City's Naming Committee was constituted in October last year, and is chaired by the Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Roads and Stormwater, Councillor Brett Herron. This formed part of the City's Naming Policy, which was approved by Council in December 2010.

In the past few months, the City has changed the names of Oswald Pirow to Christiaan Barnard Street; Eastern Boulevard has become Nelson Mandela Boulevard; Western Boulevard has been changed to Helen Suzman Boulevard. The concourse between the Civic Centre and Artscape Theatre has been renamed after Chief Albert Luthuli.

Residents will be notified of the public meetings through the City's website, posters and radio and print advertisements. Have Your Say posters will also be put up in the affected streets. Individual pamphlets including all the relevant information relating to the renaming of the affected street will be drafted and dropped off at each residential property through a comprehensive knock-and-drop process. Ward councillors will also be provided with all the relevant information.

"This administration is committed to building an inclusive city and it is one of the five pillars that make up our mandate. We regard the naming of public places and public streets as an important symbolic process and we are mindful that our task needs to be carried out respectfully and with great sensitivity. We will work from the starting place that where public participation is promoted, and diversity is embraced, the use of place naming as a permanent symbol has the potential to promote a socially sustainable and inclusive city," said Cllr Herron.

For more information, see the City's Naming Policy.

Further information is available from: