By Mzoxolo Mpolase
The City of Johannesburg is facing a litany of infrastructure crises, from persistent power outages to deteriorating public services, rampant crime, and unregulated land occupations that have transformed once-thriving areas into slums.
Yet, amid these pressing concerns, the city’s leadership has found one issue deserving of their immediate focus: renaming a major Sandton street after Leila Khaled, a Palestinian plane hijacker and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terrorist organisation.
This is not just unnecessary—it is appalling. Beyond the sheer absurdity of renaming a functional road while the city crumbles, there is also the deeply disturbing choice of honouree.
Even if Johannesburg’s leadership was intent on honouring a Palestinian figure, why choose a plane hijacker affiliated with a terrorist group?
Were there no less divisive figures? How low and how morally bankrupt must the ANC and its coalition partners be to consider this even remotely acceptable?
Why Sandton Drive? The Intent is Clear
At face value, one might argue that renaming a street is merely a symbolic exercise. But this is no random road. Sandton Drive is strategically significant.
It stretches from Rivonia Road to Winnie Mandela Drive, housing some of South Africa’s most well-known corporate headquarters, luxury establishments, and, notably, the US Consulate in Johannesburg.
If the City of Johannesburg genuinely sought to honour a Palestinian figure, it had thousands of alternative streets available for renaming. The selection of this specific road points to a calculated decision.
The intent? To establish a permanent symbolic message—a visible, daily reminder of South Africa’s increasingly antagonistic stance towards the United States and Israel. This renaming is not about honouring Khaled. It is about sending a defiant political statement at the doorstep of the US Consulate.
Since the ANC first proposed this renaming in 2018, opposition has been strongly led by South Africa’s Jewish community and naturally those in the Sandton Drive and Sandton area.
The ANC-led Johannesburg council pushed the process forward with little resistance, albeit staggered given the tumultuous era of local government coalition politics, especially in Johannesburg since the 2016 local government elections.
Then, after weeks of the topic occupying national public discourse, and especially after Trump’s inauguration, and some frankness from prominent US-based South African, Joel Pollak, something changed.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is now all of a sudden stepping into local government politics, signalling or rather advising hesitation.
A Turning Point: Why is Ramaphosa Suddenly Hesitant?
The question is, why?
The answer likely lies in the Trump administration’s recent executive order directly targeting South Africa for its anti-Western actions.
- Donald Trump has placed South Africa “under watch” for its alignment with global adversaries.
- The US issued an executive order outlining diplomatic and aid repercussions.
- There is now the very real possibility that the US could respond in ways that South Africa cannot afford.
Until now, the ANC has been content with escalating its anti-Israel stance without fearing real consequences. But the renaming of Sandton Drive takes this to another level—from policy statements to physical, irreversible actions that would place the US government in an awkward diplomatic position.
This is no longer just about rhetoric. If Sandton Drive is renamed after a Palestinian militant, it would force the US to respond.
Would Washington shut down its Johannesburg consulate? Perhaps. Would it escalate trade restrictions? Possibly. Could this contribute to a broader diplomatic breakdown? Likely.
And therein lies the ANC’s dilemma. Having spent years cultivating anti-Israel and anti-US sentiment, it now finds itself at the edge of a cliff, uncertain whether the next step will bring applause from its radical supporters or severe diplomatic consequences.
The ANC’s Pattern: Renaming as a Substitute for Governance
If Johannesburg were a well-run city, perhaps the leadership’s obsession with symbolic politics would be forgivable. But it is not. The city is in a state of managed decline, and the renaming of streets has become a distraction from the glaring failures of governance.
- Public infrastructure is collapsing, with potholes, power outages, and water shortages becoming routine.
- Crime is rampant, with lawlessness extending from informal land invasions to unchecked organised crime activity.
- Basic services like traffic lights, waste collection, and road maintenance are supposed to be provided by the City of Johannesburg, but they are delivered so badly that the city feels like a slum.
In the absence of effective governance, private business improvement districts have stepped in to maintain some level of order.
These initiatives, such as Sandton Central, have taken on responsibilities that the city has abandoned—keeping streets clean, maintaining public spaces, and ensuring that the business district does not descend into complete disrepair. These are not luxuries. They are responses to government failure.
Yet, instead of fixing its governance shortcomings, the ANC would rather rename streets. Instead of improving service delivery, it engages in empty symbolic gestures while outsourcing the actual work of city maintenance to private sector initiatives.
And this is not the first time.
Instead of building new roads or new cities, the ANC has dedicated itself to renaming existing ones.
- Port Elizabeth became Gqeberha
- Grahamstown became Makhanda
- William Nicol Drive became Winnie Mandela Drive
None of these name changes came with infrastructural improvements or tangible benefits to the public. They are exercises in political vanity, meant to reinforce ideological narratives rather than address real-world concerns. And now, Sandton Drive is next.
The Implications: A Needless Fight South Africa Cannot Afford
South Africa is in no position to engage in a diplomatic fight with the United States. The country is already battling an economic crisis, worsening unemployment, and a declining international credit rating.
The United States remains one of South Africa’s largest trading partners. Any further deterioration in relations risks damaging the very economy the ANC claims to protect.
Yet, in the midst of this precarious situation, Johannesburg’s leadership sees fit to provoke the United States with a highly visible, politically charged name change.
At a time when investors are fleeing, businesses are shutting down, and unemployment is soaring, the last thing South Africa needs is to escalate tensions with Washington over a symbolic, avoidable, and entirely unnecessary street renaming.
The Final Verdict
The proposed renaming of Sandton Drive is not about Palestine. It is not about honouring a historic figure. It is not even about South African identity. It is a political stunt, orchestrated by a government that has perfected the art of distraction.
Johannesburg is a city in crisis. Yet, its leaders seem to believe that symbolic gestures—renaming streets, issuing statements, waving foreign flags at party rallies—are enough to pacify the public while real problems go unaddressed.
The ANC builds nothing, fixes nothing, and solves nothing—yet believes renaming everything will hide that reality.
