September 23, 2005
By Ndaba Dlamini
ONE of Johannesburg's busier streets, Harrow Road, will officially be renamed Joe Slovo Drive in October to honour an icon of the freedom struggle.
Council formally approved the name change at its monthly meeting on Thursday, 22 September.
Steven Sack, the director of the City's department of arts, culture and heritage services says the actual date for the official unveiling of the new street name will be done in early October by Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo.
"A definite date for the unveiling is yet to be confirmed."
It will form part of Heritage Day celebrations, according to Sack.
The renaming was approved by the City in April after a request was put forward by the South African Communist Party (SACP) on the tenth anniversary of the anti-apartheid activist's death.
Slovo was the national chairperson of the SACP when he died on 6 January 1995.
Already the City has started changing road signage along the stretch of road from the M2 East Harrow Road off-ramp to St Andrews Street in Houghton Estate. Siemert Road, which becomes Harrow Road from the M2 East, and St Andrews, a section of road north of the Louis Botha Avenue flyover, will be renamed Joe Slovo Drive.
"The Johannesburg Road Agency will spend about R30 000 changing road signage," says Mmaalafa Frans Ledwaba, the assistant manager committee liaison and monitoring at the agency.
"We have already started with overheads and we hope to have completed all road markings and erection of signs by early October."
Harrow Road forms the boundary between the suburbs of Berea and Yeoville, where Slovo lived. He attended school in the area, at Observatory Junior, Yeoville Boys and Observatory Junior High School.
According to the African National Congress website, Slovo was born in Lithuania in 1926. His family immigrated to South Africa when he was eight. He became politically active as a student and was a founder member of the Congress of Democrats.
Slovo was arrested and detained for two months during the Treason Trial of 1956. During his years in exile, he lived in the United Kingdom, Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, returning to South Africa in 1990 to participate in the early talks between the apartheid government and the ANC.
Slovo was minister of housing in the government of national unity when he died.
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