Duh! It’s back to school for street sign writers

THE people responsible for creating the new street signs being put up along some of Windhoek’s roads will not be winning any prizes for good spelling skills soon.

Spelling mistakes abound on the new street signs.Goshawk Road in Hochland Park was turned into ‘Goshwack Road’, the surname of Namibia’s most famous athlete, Frankie Fredericks, is misspelled on street signs in Kleine Kuppe, and even the surname of one of the most famous people of the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi, ended up wrong on street signs in Windhoek West, Khomasdal and Katutura. On signs along Johann Albrecht Street in Windhoek West the last letter was dropped from the name of the street, the ‘s’ in the surname of former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher was dropped on signs along the street bearing his name, and at Kroon Road in Khomasdal the spelling just went completely awry, with a new creation called a ‘Rooad’ ending up on one signboard.The company responsible for putting up the signs is Primedia Outdoor. Its boss, Edward Mouton, told The Namibian on Thursday that the mistakes would be corrected as soon as possible. He said Primedia relied on a list of street names supplied by the City of Windhoek, but acknowledged that mistakes could have been made in the typesetting process without being picked up.Spelling mistakes have also spoiled older street signs in the city for years, with Bismarck Street spelled without the ‘c’ in some places, Jordaan Street in Pionierspark missing an ‘a’ on some signs, and Academia’s Jaspers Street – named after the philosopher Karl Jaspers – not only ending up as ‘Jasper’ on street signs but also missing the descriptive past of its name, such as street, road, drive or avenue, like many other street signs in that part of town.For more photos see page 7