FREE
ESTABLISHED 1991
WEDNESDAY 2527 MARCH 2015
WWW.EXPRESSNEWS.CO.ZA
Flooded due to rain SOFT but persistent rain fell in the City of Roses on Monday (23/03) and Tuesday (24/03), resulting in some localised flooding. A few junctions within the city were waterlogged due to the downpour. Photo: Mlungisi Louw
Free State no more?
MEC announces that province may soon be renamed } Selloane Khalane A WASTE of money. This was how some Free State residents described the proposed name change of the province to a Sotho or other name. This followed a huge debate that ensued after MEC Mathabo Leeto of the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation had said the name of the Free State was one of the 37 names that would soon undergo a renaming process. Leeto said this last Wednesday (18/03)
during her department’s budget speech. Leeto told the Free State Legislature that her department intended to rename the Free State to a Sotho name, because it was not representative of the people who lived in the province. Leeto, during her speech, said the majority of people who resided in the province were Sotho-speaking yet the name of their province could not be translated into their language. Express Mangaung interviewed several people on the streets of Bloemfontein on
whether the name of the province should be changed. All of them said changing the name would not only be a waste of money, but would also set a precedent for other political parties who would also want to change the name of the province should the ANC be toppled in the province. One of the interviewees, Patrick Lempe, said: “Changing the name of the province will not make any difference in eradicating poverty in the province.” Amanda Vorster said she did not really
care whether the name changed, but was concerned with the costs of the whole process. “The money should be directed to more important services,” she said. Tshediso Montsho also said changing the name of the province was unnecessary and a waste of muchneeded state resources. Montsho raised concerns on the ripple effect of changing the province’s name and said the current name was not a discriminatory term.
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