Nadine Gordimer would have been a better choice to name the Far East Rand Hospital after than Ruth First‚ The Democratic Alliance said on Monday. While acknowledging First’s contribution as an anti-apartheid together with her husband Joe Slovo‚ the DA’s shadow health MEC‚ Jack Bloom‚ said that the decision was “puzzling” as she “was born in Johannesburg and has no readily apparent link to the Far East Rand area”.In a written reply to Bloom in the Gauteng Legislature‚ health MEC Qedani Mahlangu said the Far East Rand Hospital board wrote a letter to the MEC in seven years ago proposing the name change.“Several meetings were held with the members of the hospital board‚ community of Springs‚ Kwa-Thema‚ Tsakane and Daveyton. Furthermore‚ staff members (including labour unions)‚ members of the religious forum were consulted‚” read Mahlangu’s reply.But‚ said Bloom‚ the DA ward councillor of the area in which the hospital is located‚ Dean Stone‚ “was not consulted at all with regard to the renaming‚ unlike ANC councillors who were involved in the Zola-Jabulani and New Natalspruit Hospital name changes”.“Nobel Prize-winning author Gordimer is the most famous Springs-born personality‚ and should have been considered‚ especially as her name could be used to raise donor funds internationally for the hospital‚” said Bloom...