GOVERNMENT has renamed Harare’s Enterprise Road and Bulawayo’s 6th Avenue, among other streets in many towns and cities in the country, after President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Zanu PF led government further renamed Harare Central Hospital after late former State President Robert Mugabe’s first wife, Sally who died of a kidney ailment in 1992.
Acting Information Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu told journalists during Thursday’s post-cabinet media briefing the streets and other buildings will be referred to by the new names with immediate effect.
South African liberation icon Oliver Tambo, late former Cuban President Fidel Castro and Soviet Union’s fifth leader Leonid Brezhnev, have also been honoured.
“Cabinet received and approved new street names as presented by Vice President Kembo Mohadi.
“In Harare, cabinet Emmerson Mnangagwa Road ,formerly Enterprise Road; John Landa Avenue formerly Selous Avenue; Joseph Msika Street, formerly Cameron Street; Solomon Mujuru Drive, formerly Kirkman Drive; Oliver Tambo Avenue, formerly Livingstone Avenue; Fidel Castro Road, formerly Charter Road and Leonid Brezhnev, formerly Five Avenue,” said Ndlovu.
“The second city, Bulawayo, cabinet approved the following changes among others; Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Way, formerly 6th Avenue; Simon Muzenda Avenue, formerly 9th Avenue; Joseph Msika Avenue, formerly 12th Avenue; John Landa Nkomo Avenue, formerly 4th Avenue up to King George; Maria Msika Avenue, formerly 5th Avenue; Nikita Mangena Avenue, formerly 10th Avenue; Queen Lozikeyi Street, formerly Baines Street; Lookout Masuku formerly Collen Brander Avenue and Jairos Jiri Avenue, formerly 28th Avenue.
“I do not know if there are any other formalities, but the streets change names with immediate effect.”
VP Mohadi is chairman of street names in Cabinet.
Minister Ndlovu said there was nothing wrong with the development as Mnangagwa had every right to have a street named after him even as a sitting president.
He added: “When you look at the names that we have come up with, they are all speaking to our history, to our values and pretty much that is the reason why we thought it was important to take this route.
“In terms of naming streets and any building after the president, in terms of our constitution, he is the only person who can have a street named after him while he is still alive, and this is not the first time we have seen this obtaining. We have seen it under the former president.”
Government complexes across the country have also been named after different luminaries from Zimbabwe’s history. – Newzimbabwe
