Joel Pollak, the frontrunner to become the United States Ambassador to South Africa, said a planned Sandton Drive name change would result in the closure of the Consulate in Johannesburg.
The United States Consulate in Johannesburg is located at 1 Sandton Drive in Sandhurst and is a branch of the US Diplomatic Mission to South Africa.
Consul General Stephanie Bunce heads it, and it represents the people in the region and the business and academic communities.
The United States Consulate in Johannesburg provides consular services in Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and North-West Provinces.
These services include helping Americans with emergencies and assisting them with documents like passports and reports of birth.
The Consulate helps non-Americans, mostly South Africans, with non-immigrant and immigrant visas to the United States.
Last year, the City of Johannesburg promoted plans to rename Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive.
Leila Khaled is a controversial freedom fighter for Palestinian rights and a former Palestinian militant and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Khaled gained prominence after her role in the TWA Flight 840 hijacking in 1969 and one of the four simultaneous Dawson’s Field hijackings the following year.
She was imprisoned for the hijackings but was released in a prisoner exchange for civilian hostages kidnapped by other PFLP members.
The ANC is an ally to Palestine. Since the 1950s, the ANC has enjoyed strong ties with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Last year, the ANC in the City of Joburg Council, supported by the EFF, proposed renaming Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive.
The ANC’s first deputy secretary general, Nomvula Mokonyane, was particularly keen on the name change.
She reportedly said, “We want the United States of America embassy to change their letterhead to Number 1 Leila Khaled Drive”.
“We are sending a message that they cannot dominate us and tell us what to do. It must be in their face, it must be in their computers, in their letterheads,” she is quoted as saying.
The planned name change received significant opposition. Many viewed it as political grandstanding and a waste of money on an unnecessary project.
Earlier this month, ActionSA announced that the Johannesburg political management committee (PMC) had agreed to stop the renaming due to the fierce opposition.
Pollak explained that it was internally corrosive to South Africa to honour terrorists and people who murder other people.
He explained that it was at odds with the interests of the United States and the values of civilisation.
He added that you cannot control crime in a country when you promote the idea that there is some use for murder.
“If your position is that it is acceptable to hijack planes and kill innocent people for the right cause, you have not ruled out murder,” he said.
“If someone murders innocent people and you somehow think it is fine, you are going to have a crime problem. It is corrosive to the rule of law and the morality of society in general.”
He expressed confusion on why South Africa would like to honour Leila Khaled despite the ANC’s ideological alignment with Palestine.
He said if South Africa takes the position of condoning and glorifying the terrorist actions, it would not be operating there.
“I don’t think Americans will feel comfortable travelling to South Africa if they have to get their visas renewed at Leila Khaled Drive,” he said.
BUSINESSTECH