The national government is engaged in talks with the leadership of the City of Johannesburg to review the proposed renaming of Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive.
This was confirmed by presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, who told TimesLIVE Premium that a discussion was under way.
This development follows front-runner to be President Trump’s new ambassador to South Africa Joel Pollak's threat to shut down the Johannesburg consulate should the city proceed with the renaming after a Palestinian activist.
A senior government official said Pretoria has a balancing act to perform if it is to manage relations with Washington amid rising tensions, which includes the prioritisation of what is diplomatically important.
“We know what is at stake. We have been trying to de-escalate these tensions between us and the US. Notwithstanding the fact that these issues did not emanate from South Africa, they were raised in a public platform by Washington and they were never raised through diplomatic channels.”
Joburg mayoral spokesperson Chris Vondo explained that the public participation process had been concluded and the report was expected to be brought before council for consideration.
“The report is still with the department. There are conversations under way with various stakeholders, with national leadership and interested groups, because of the sensitivity of the matter and the possible impact this move will have,” he said.
However, Vondo said the mayor cannot pre-empt what the outcome of the public participation process would be, nor can he speculate on what it would say.
“We are waiting for the report so we can have insight on the formal public participation process. Once it is concluded, it has to be presented and engaged with stakeholders in terms of how the concerns are being handled.”
The responsibility of repairing the relationship lies with the president and the department of international relations and cooperation. At what point of the exercise of that responsibility would you want to explain some process that has been taken by a metro?
— Chris Vondo, Joburg mayoral spokesperson
The Presidency previously revealed it had been reaching out to various levels of the Donald Trump administration to engage and iron out issues and reach a common understanding.
“We have been focusing on resetting the relationship and looking at areas of alignment and commonality where we can build on the relationship and trade deal proposals that we can put before them.
“In light of all of this, would you want to add more fuel to the fire by renaming Sandton Drive? In terms of what is at stake, is the renaming of that street something you are going to want to hold onto for dear life where all else can be blown into smithereens?” the government official said.
Despite not having formally met with the White House over its continued aggressive stance against Pretoria, the Union Buildings is said to have an idea based on what has been released in the public domain.
The government has been clear over the past weeks that some of the Trump administration's position on South Africa was based on misinformation. These include the false statements over South Africa's relationship with Iran and the Expropriation Act.
South Africa has also been at odds with Washington over its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and the decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a close ally of the Trump administration and the US.
“From what we have seen publicly, these are the issues. Now you have individuals like Joel Pollak, who is campaigning to be the US ambassador to South Africa, but doing so at the expense and image of the would-be host country.
“So with all of this, would we really want to add the renaming of Sandton Drive to the issues — which has got nothing to do with our sovereignty, and so on. If you are in the process of de-escalating tensions, you would not want to add to the list of issues that will result in more tension. This is not because we are caving to pressure, but logically speaking, already we have a basket of issues to be resolved with the US, whether of principle or misunderstanding.
“The responsibility of repairing the relationship lies with the president and the department of international relations and cooperation. At what point of the exercise of that responsibility would you want to explain some process that has been taken by a metro?”
According to the mayoral spokesperson, the rules of council suggest that a public participation process must be followed and officially a report is tabled before any decision is taken.
In addition, he said the process of rescinding is permitted in council guidelines.
“Bilaterals are taking place in respect of those discussions. The public participation process does not take away from the engagements that are being held about the impact of what this proposed renaming process has already sparked in the public domain. We can't know whether the report is saying rename or do not rename. The outcomes of the report will lead us to a way forward.”
Last week the DA raised a motion for the rescinding of the renaming report. The motion was dismissed after a council vote. This is an example of putting the cart before the horse, Vondo said.
“You can't come and say 'rescind this decision' when we are awaiting a report. If there is a compelling case to be made, then the city will have to go back to the rules and make those considerations on whatever contention or consensus to be made.”
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