Durban's Indian community has made a strong push to commemorate its former heroes with 68 of 112 new name change proposals aimed at honouring them.
But councillors sitting on the eThekwini Municipality's name change committee say the latest list, published on Wednesday, was not the end and there would be even more name-change proposals between now and June 25 when the deadline for submissions and objections will close.
Among the names put forward are those of Indian sports stars, religious leaders, political activists and community leaders.
The Chatsworth Soccer Stadium has the most renaming proposals with suggestions to rename it the Rama Reddy Stadium after the former president of the South African Soccer Federation, the DN Shaik Stadium after the first president of the Chatsworth Indian Football Association and another to rename it the Gona Arumgam Kuppusamy Stadium after the former Indian footballer and executive member of the Chatsworth Football Club.
Other Indian sport stars getting the nod are Teddy Freddy, former president of the Bluff Rangers Football Club and founder of the Chatsworth Netball Association, Dharm Mohan and Ramiah Naidoo, both of whom were well-known sports stars in Chatsworth.
There have been proposals to rename Himalayas Road in Merewent after Dip Kisten, a former Mkhonto we Sizwe cadre, Phoenix Highway after Dawood Seedat, who participated in the passive resistance campaign in 1946 and the 1952 defiance campaigns, and Northern Drive, also in Phoenix, after his wife, Fatima Seedat.
There is also a proposal to rename Joyce Road Rugnath Road after the Rugnath family who were involved in the fight against apartheid.
Minority Front executive committee member in the eThekwini Municipality, Jayraj Singh, said he believes the majority of these proposals came from the ANC. Singh said the ANC was aware there were omissions on their side and, in a very clandestine manner, re-opened the process to add names of (Indian) ANC activists they had forgotten.
ANC leader in Chatsworth, Visvin Reddy said the names were to remind people of the roles South Africans of Indian descent had played in the fight against apartheid.
DA name change committee councillor Devan Naicker said there was a tendency to shift away from solely political heroes to heroes in sports and community, but the DA was still consolidating its position on this. He said the first and the second batch of names have been given to the ward committees to go through, but there could well be another batch forthcoming.
There has also been an attempt to remember some of the heroes of the Coloured community. These include renaming Jonas Road in Austerville after Keith Joseph, a social activist in the Wentworth area, and Alabama Road after Clifford Brown who attacked the Engen Oil refinery and was murdered in a paint factory in Jacobs.
There is also a proposal to rename the Austerville Community Hall after anti-apartheid activist Morris Fynn, who was arrested several times for chopping down "Whites Only" signs.