Winnie Mandela Drive: Jo’burg Transport MMC defends R250k cost

Deputy President of Patriotic Alliance and City of Johannesburg Transport MMC Kenny Kunene has recently defended the whopping R250 000 amount spent to change the Sandton street name from William Nicol Drive to Winnie Mandela Drive, the Citizen reported.

CATCH UP: William Nicol changed to Winnie Mandela Drive

‘CAN’T PUT MONETARY VALUE TO THE PAIN’: KENNY KUNENE ON WINNIE MANDELA DRIVE

According to the publication, the quarter of a million rands used to rename William Nicol Drive to Winnie Mandela Drive was spent on several factors including advertising the new name change, the public participation process, as well as contributing factors surrounding erecting the new street signs in place.

Johannesburg Transport MMC, Kenny Kunene attempted to stop critics in their tracks as he defended the amount used to see the project through.

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“You can’t put monetary value to the pain of South Africans. You can’t put a price on reconciliation. Reconciliation was not fully done; it is not a one-way street,” he was quoted as saying.

“For us to be able to deal with the pain of apartheid, we must remove all the names of apartheid architects and those who implemented it, those who murdered our people, and those who [caused] us so much pain and trauma,” he reportedly added.

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MORE ABOUT THE RENAMED STREET IN SANDTON

Johannesburg City Manager Floyd Brink is said to have recalled that the motion to rename William Nicol Drive was passed in council back in 2018, EWN reported.

“There might be other indirect costs that I might not be aware of now, but I can indicate to you in terms of the figure, it’s not material because if you follow the process, we did what we had to do,” he was quoted as saying.

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