During my recent visit from the UK to the city of Durban, I was flabbergasted to read a letter in a national newspaper that the name of local war hero Edwin Swales VC Drive had been replaced with another.

I was also appalled to learn that the reason for removing the honour on Swales was that the Durban city authorities consider that World War II had been a colonial war.

How incredibly ridiculous. Are the authorities not aware that thousands of South Africans of all races took up arms and fought against fascism and many did not return to South African's shores?

The honour of Edwin Swales would therefore have been a remembrance for South Africans killed in the conflict.

One can understand that the people of Durban would want to honour its ANC struggle heroes, but to replace the honour of one local hero with another is senseless and unprecedented in any country.

Swales flew missions from a little town in England. He sacrificed his life for seven of his crew and four of those survivors were British.

In the UK we would never dishonour such a hero.

It is because of this that I am confident that I will have no problem motivating for Edwin Swales to be honoured in Britain.

A country that brave South African Edwin Swales also fought to save against enslavement and tyranny.

Derek Hartry, United Kingdom