The Minister of Arts and Culture, Ms Lulu Xingwana has approved 42 name changes at the recommendation of the South African Geographical Names Council which appears in the Government Gazette today.
37 geographical names were approved by the Minister on 28 July 2009. On 18 September 2009 another five names were approved. Some of the approved name changes are Belfast to eMakhazeni, Waterval Boven to Emgwenya, Machadodorp to eNtokozweni, and Nelspruit to Mbombela.
South Africa has come out of a long history of struggle and oppression during which period many names of places and features were imposed, without any consultation, on even places that already had names. Some of the names were offensive and others commemorated people who were heroes to a small number but who were cruel to the vast majority.
It is because of the foregoing that the present name changes are a restitution process. It is a process that United Nations had long passed resolutions on with regard to standardisation of names. South Africa, together with many other countries of the world, that have been subjugated, has engaged in the exercise of name changes. Besides being a restorative justice the name changes provide people with a sense of national identity.
This exercise of name change is initiated by local communities through their municipalities. Research, decisions and recommendations are then made at the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC), a statutory body set up in the 1930’s. This body may then seek the approval of the Minister of Arts and Culture on the names recommended.
“As we strive towards a more inclusive national identity it is important that names of places reflect a true sense of what it means to be proudly South African,” said Minister Xingwana. “We as a nation possess the present and the future.”
“A large majority of pre-colonial names carried with them particular meanings: the kind of meanings the indigenous communities attached to their own identities and their relationships with their neighbours and the immediate environment,” Minister Xingwana said.
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Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
16 October 2009
Source: Department of Arts and Culture (http://www.dac.gov.za/)
