The ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg has joined Eskom’s Megawatt Park in getting a mischievous new name on Google Maps‚ being labelled “Chief Albert Lootfreely House”.
Chief Albert Luthuli House has been the home of the ANC since 1997 when the party moved from Shell House.
A search for it on Google Maps on Monday evening brought up results for “Chief Albert Lootfreely House” instead. A Wikipedia search also brought up the “new” name.
“The name ‘Luthuli House’ is frequently used as a metonym for the national corrupt leadership of the ANC‚” it adds.
A large fence was erected to create a barricade in streets around Luthuli House earlier this year‚ when DA marchers protested against load-shedding‚ electricity tariff increases and the ANC’s cadre deployment policy.
An estimated 2‚500 supporters marched from Mary Fitzgerald Square in the Johannesburg CBD to the headquarters where the barricade separated them and ANC Youth League supporters who had earlier vowed to “defend” the headquarters.
Two months later‚ the EFF marched to Luthuli House to protest against corruption‚ the electricity crisis and demand President Cyril Ramaphosa be removed from office.
“We are going to continue until we get our electricity back and make sure that Cyril Ramaphosa is removed from office. We are moving around mobilising communities to come and join us as we fight this corrupt government‚” EFF Johannesburg region deputy chairperson Victor Senyatso said.
According to Google‚ users are able to suggest changes to a business’s name and details through the Google Maps app. Once a request for change is received‚ it is assessed and verified.
Okay, who did this? 😂 pic.twitter.com/rKVcwVQrB4
— Duncan McLeod (@mcleodd) May 22, 2023
It follows a similar renaming of Eskom’s headquarters Megawatt Park to “MegaGravy Train Park”.
In 2019‚ Eskom’s Medupi power station was altered on Wikipedia to claim the English translation of the power station’s name was “rain that soaks coal”‚ instead of “rain that soaks parched land”.
Source: ARENA Holdings.