MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Welcome to Steve Biko Street

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AZAPO has welcomed the renaming of Strand Street in Gqeberha after Steve Biko, the Founding Father of the Black Consciousness Movement.

Strand Street is the street where the torture headquarters of the apartheid Special Branch were located. The notorious place was the Sanlam Building where Biko was tortured to a point of being brain dead on the evening of 6 September 1977.

In AZAPO we therefore believe that the Sanlam Building and Strand Street represents the continuum of martyrdom, for it is the Alfa of Biko’s death, while Pretoria Maximum Prison was the Omega of his death.

AZAPO is of the view that Gqeberha doesn’t realise how rich is its political, cultural and historical heritage with Biko in the Nelson Mandela Bay. If it knew, the 2010 FIFA World Cup visitors would not have been lectured about the colonial Rufane Donkin Museum, at the expense of Biko’s cross just across the road.

With the renaming of Strand Street, Gqeberha has positioned Biko right inside the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. It is a stimulus that stands to boost tourism in the Bay. Not many people know that Biko used to spend some of his good time in Walmer with his Comrades and in-laws. The irony is that the Walmer Police Station is where he spent some of his last days.

Sadly, Strand Street needs some cleaning and revamping before it qualifies to bear Biko’s great name. It must be elevated to a Cultural Path decorated with the murals of struggle martyrs on the pillars of the highways that runs over Strand Street.

AZAPO extended their thanks to the NMB municipality for its cooperation with AZAPOs application that has been on the table since 2018. AZAPO will on 29 November participate in a renaming ceremony at the Nongoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton at 11am.

Today the NMBM will unveil new street names in line with the mandate to redress disparities of the past and facilitate social cohesion, following Council’s approval of the new names to be unveiled on Wednesday.

This comes after all required steps were taken according to the South African Geographic Names Council Act (118 of 1998) and the NMBM naming and renaming policy.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.