I am not happy with some of the utterances by DA and IFP leaders about proposed name changes.

I am not happy with some of the utterances by DA and IFP leaders about proposed name changes.

The concerns they raise might be genuine and require the attention of the ANC, but threats of violence and disruption of people's lives is totally unacceptable.

A few weeks before the protest march in eThekwini last month, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi was quoted as having made threats of violence if the renaming project went ahead. He accused the eThekwini mayor, Obed Mlaba, of hating him, because of the renaming of the Mangosuthu Highway.

What Buthelezi forgot was that the naming of the road and other places in the province were part of an undemocratic process, where he, as the then minister in chief of KwaZulu-Natal, was rewarded by his party, without any input from the people.

I found his utterances to contain the potential of instigating violence.

What is amazing is the DA's participation in the eThekwini march and the party's silence about the hooliganism at the march.

The people of KwaZulu- Natal deserve a break from political violence despite holding different views. They must be allowed to enjoy the fruits of our democracy, like people elsewhere in the country.

Musa Madonsela, Soweto