Street names are significant

The quote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, from Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, is what Juliet thought at that moment – that a name is just a label to distinguish one thing from another.

- MANDLA MTHEMBU

It’s not what Shakespeare thought, or what anyone who considers it for a moment would think. Our perceptions are coloured by the names of things; if roses had an ugly name, then we’d be subtly infl uenced by this and they would smell less sweet (or at least we’d think they did).

Most South Africans would rightfully argue that the process of changing street names is tedious and a waste of taxpayers’ money that should rather be used for service delivery.

People who are used to certain streets’ names tend to be confused or lost, especially if they haven’t been aware of the renaming process.