Durban -The Msunduzi Municipality is urging its residents to take part in the process to rename some of the public spaces in the city.
For the past few days, city officials have been engaging communities in different wards about the process.
The move has not been well received by some of the city’s residents, who believe the city has many pressing priorities and should not prioritise the renaming of public spaces.
In a statement on its social media pages, the municipality said it had outlined the advantages that will come with officially naming public places and streets in different wards, including that it will ensure timely service delivery considering that areas will be easily identified using the names that will be recorded in the it’s database.
“Msunduzi Municipality gives permission to residents to name public places and streets after certain individuals to acknowledge them. However, no payment will be made to such persons. Families whose names will be used in the street naming process will be given consent forms,” said the statement.
It said residents are given an option to compile a list of names and hand it over to ward councillors, who will then present it to council. Residents can look out for these names, which will be published by the municipality, and they will be given only 30 days to object or approve proposed names.
But residents took to the city’s social media pages to express their displeasure about the process.
A resident posted, “City is falling apart, you thinking about street names, instead of doing damage control kunzima ( its difficult) you strategic planning team is only thinking about fat pockets.”
Another resident said “Seriously, I can't understand how renaming a street is going to improve service delivery.”
One woman said, “Why waste valuable income on name changes, the soccer team, etc.? Fix what is broken and or not working FIRST!! Msunduzi, you have your priorities back to front.