Gloudina Street lingers on

By: DENVER KISTING

TEN months after Gloudina Street in Windhoek’s upmarket Ludwigsdorf area was renamed Joseph Mukwayu Ithana Street, City of Windhoek bills still show the old name.

The street was officially renamed Joseph Mukwayu Ithana Street in a public ceremony on October 1 2011 – a day after veteran lawyer Andreas Vaatz tried, but failed, one more time to get a court interdict to stop the renaming of the street where he has been living for at least 27 years.
The street now bears the name of the late Joseph Ithana, who in life was the chairperson of the Public Service Commission of Namibia and the husband of the Minister of Justice and Swapo Party secretary general Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana – also a resident of the street.
Asked whether her bill also still bears the old name, Iivula-Ithana said: “Normally, I don’t deal with my bill. It’s a process [to effect a name change] but the name has changed.”
Vaatz filed an urgent application with the High Court in Windhoek in October last year in a last-ditch attempt to stop the renaming.
Vaatz, who complained that the Windhoek City Council decided to rename the street without consulting residents about such a step, claimed in an affidavit filed with the court that the decision to continue with the renaming while his appeal to the Supreme Court was pending, was “improper, unreasonable and unlawful”.
A City of Windhoek spokesperson on Monday said that they would respond to a question about the name on the bills yesterday.

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