A statue of a bearded Boer trekker gazes sternly across Potchefstroom, a South African university town named after the man who brought the settlers to the area in 1838.

But to the chagrin of the Afrikaners who are Andries Potgieter’s descendants, the ANC-controlled city council yesterday renamed it Tlokwe after the original inhabitants of the region.

It is the latest in a series of renamings which have provoked vandalism and death threats in Potchefstroom, exposing the racial tensions that still exist in South Africa after 13 years of majority rule.

Around 60 per cent of street signs proclaiming the new names of roads have already been stolen. Panels reading Nelson Mandela Rylaan (or Drive) have had the first nine letters blacked out to leave ‘dela Rylaan’, which could be read as De la Ry Avenue, an apparent reference to the Boer general Koos de la Rey.

Three white men were arrested after allegedly threatening violence if the original names were not restored, in a letter filled with racial abuse.

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