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Challenge ANC name-changing fanaticism

The ANC has embarked on a name-change frenzy that borders on schizophrenia.

The ANC has embarked on a name-change frenzy that borders on schizophrenia.

The irrationality of the choice of new names should be cause for serious concern to people who are not members of the ruling party.

The way the names are imposed should solicit anger among blacks but their acquiescence makes one wonder about their understanding of political processes in a democracy.

One day another party will take over and the names of ANC members, some of whom are or were political hoodlums, will be arbitrarily removed.

My gripe is with Dobsonville residents who failed to stand up for the late Mary Malahlela - the first black woman medical doctor, who spent her entire career loyally serving residents of the township.

Besides a primary school, nothing in and around Dobsonville is named after her, not even the clinic where she worked for so many years.

Instead, Braam Fischer and Joe Slovo are honoured in new townships in the area. I suspect Discoverers Hospital in Florida will soon undergo a name change, though I notice that the zealotry of the name -change brigade is diluted where white interests are concerned.

I challenge Dobsonville residents to campaign to change the hospital to the Dr Mary Malahlela Hospital or demand that it changes Braamfischerville to honour this great woman.

Maswabi Legwale, Soweto

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