{"id":1569,"date":"2020-09-03T15:51:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T13:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=431184"},"modified":"2020-09-03T15:51:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T13:51:57","slug":"name-changes-planned-for-east-london-and-other-eastern-cape-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/2020\/09\/03\/name-changes-planned-for-east-london-and-other-eastern-cape-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"Name changes planned for East London and other Eastern Cape towns"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/East-London-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>The Eastern Cape government is considering an official name change for several towns in the province as part of a programme aimed at transforming the country\u2019s geographic landscape to be more representative of its people.<\/p>\n<p>The major metropolitan of East London has been identified as one of the towns which could see a change, with <strong>KuGompo<\/strong> provided as an alternate name.<\/p>\n<p>Other proposed changes include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>King William\u2019s Town renamed to <strong>Qonce<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>Berlin renamed to <strong>Ntabozuko<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>East London Airport renamed to <strong>King Phalo Airport<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In 2018, the Eastern Cape town of Grahamstown officially had its name changed to Makhanda as part of the same initiative.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Arts and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa said that it is standard practice to change names which were not in line with the letter and spirit of the constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that recommended that the renaming of geographic features be a form of \u2018symbolic reparation\u2019 to address an unjust past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese reparations include changing the names of geographical places. Surely we cannot prove ourselves committed (as government) to fully achieve these reparations if we retain names such as Grahamstown \u2013 named after Colonel John Graham \u2013 whose name is captured in history as being the most brutal and the most vicious of the British commanders on that frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In comparison \u2018Makhanda\u2019 \u2013 who was also known as Nxele \u2013 was a Xhosa warrior, philosopher, prophet, and military man who fought against colonialism in battles that include one where he led an attack against the British garrison at Grahamstown in 1819, he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Expensive exercise&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, name changes have come increased scrutiny in recent years because of the attached costs associated on the country\u2019s already strained fiscus.<\/p>\n<p>The opposition Democratic Alliance said that it would oppose the \u2018frivolous\u2019 name changes in the Buffalo City Metropolitan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRenaming these Buffalo City Metro towns and the airport will not increase tourism, boost investment, improve service delivery, create employment or eradicate the problems residents face on a daily basis,\u201d said the DA\u2019s Chantel King.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of spending millions on new signage, the money should be used to improve the lives of the people of the Buffalo City Metro.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Residents have been given 21 days to oppose or comment on the renaming of the three towns and the airport. The deadline for submissions to the Eastern Cape Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture is 21 September.<\/p>\n<p>King said the DA is currently circulating a petition that we will be submitting to the Department before the petitions deadline on 17 September.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will not stand idly by and watch how millions of rands are wasted on frivolous name changes \u2013 money that can rather be used to improve the lives of residents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>Headline image courtesy of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buffalocitytourism.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo City Tourism<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/431160\/new-alcohol-rules-will-just-do-more-damage-to-the-economy-experts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New alcohol rules will just do more damage to the economy: experts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/431184\/name-changes-planned-for-east-london-and-other-eastern-cape-towns\/\">Source: BusinessTech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Eastern Cape government is considering an official name change for several towns in the province as part of a programme aimed at transforming the country\u2019s geographic landscape to be more representative of its people. The major metropolitan of East London has been identified as one of the towns which could see a change, with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}