'Street names would insult US'

2008-10-21 22:05

Pretoria - Proposals to rename two main Pretoria streets after Cuban revolutionaries are an insult to the United States and the West, the Freedom Front Plus said on Tuesday.

Tshwane councillor Conrad Beyers said the submissions by the ANC and the SA Communist Party that Pretorius and Schoeman streets - which border the American Embassy - be renamed Fidel Castro and Che Guevara respectively, would damage South Africa's international image.

This followed a public hearing on the proposed street names at the Pretoria City Hall on Monday. At the meeting the proposal was made by ANC councillor Joan Muller on behalf of the party and the SACP.

Beyers said: "The local ANC is playing with fire with their irresponsible handling of the name issue."

Intervention from a higher level of government was urgently needed to "contain" the local leaders.

"Why does the ANC want to hurl a serious insult to the USA by renaming the streets around the US embassy after two of the most bitter enemies of America - Fidel Castro and Che Guevara?

"The ANC is not only busy polarising the communities of Pretoria, they are now also starting to insult the international community," he said.

According to the FF Plus, the local ANC's "irresponsible handling" of the matter would become an embarrassment to all South Africans.

"The local ANC is trying something far above their competence - they did not think through all the implications of their insane name changes."

He said Castro remained a sworn enemy of the USA and the West, while Guevara was a terrorist, sowing murder and terror worldwide.

The USA has no formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, which Castro led for nearly 50 years.

- SAPA