Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Leah Potgieter MP, here
The recent proposal by the ANC in the City of Joburg Council, supported by the EFF, to rename Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive has been rightly met with widespread criticism as residents continue to struggle with inadequate basic services.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Sandton Constituency Councillors have taken a proactive approach to this issue by ensuring that resident views are properly assessed by the City and have to date collected 4,169 objections and 285 in support of the proposed renaming.
These objections and comments will be submitted to the City to ensure that the process is transparent, particularly as the current administration has a precedent of not including or detailing objections in reports in order to pass them unopposed
Sandton residents, and Joburg at large, have long expressed extreme frustration over ongoing issues such as severe water shortages, unrehabilitated roads, persistent power outages, and unreliable waste management, to name but a few failures by the current administration. While these essential services remain unaddressed, the ANC run government has chosen to focus on symbolic gestures that do little to improve the day-to-day lives of the people they are meant to serve.
This move can only be seen as a blatant act of political grandstanding, reflecting a disconnect between the city government and the needs of its citizens
The DA believes that policy changes and effective governance should take precedence over superficial renaming ceremonies. Our commitment is to implement policies that prioritise infrastructure investment, enhance service delivery, and ensure accountability.
We encourage the City of Johannesburg Council to shelve this renaming proposal and prioritise pressing service delivery issues that affect the residents of Sandton and the City of Joburg as a whole
We can survive without a new street name, we cannot survive without basic services such as water and electricity. We urge residents to vote for the DA in 2026 to bring about real change and restore the focus on the essential services that affect our daily lives.