A major row is brewing over a drive to change the name of tourism and holiday town Morgan Bay to Gxarha.
The Gxarha river 18km away is where prophetess Nongqawuse reportedly had her visions leading to the cattle slaying and mass starvation of the Xhosa in 1857.
Morgan Bay was named after a Captain Morgan who was in charge of a coastal survey ship in 1822, said Morgan Bay resident Dawn Field.
There have also been rumbles over the changing of the place, time and date of a public hearing called by the Eastern Cape geographical names committee to “standardise” names in the Great Kei Municipality.
ANC councillor Mluleki Templeton Mali yesterday confirmed the hearing would go ahead in the rural areas at the Makazi Red Cross community hall at 10am tomorrow.
Field said: “That is 40km away. It is a trick. But a lot of people are going, including from the township, where a lot of people are unhappy.
“This is his own initiative. He has changed the date three times and now the venue changes. Why change the time from 3pm to 10am if he is supposedly trying to accommodate more people? Is he trying to stop people coming? It is a helluva trek to get there.”
Mali confirmed he made the name change proposal in the name of the “community and as an individual” but denied he was manipulating the public participation process.
“The name came from the community. Even people in Morgan Bay know it as Gxarha,” Mali said.
“The consensus in our meeting was that anyone can submit any name. It will depend on the majority of the people.
“I proposed the name and she can raise her opposition vehemently in the meeting so that the community of the area can be convinced.
“It is not a pushover thing.”
Amathole district manager of cultural affairs Nomagezi Nodada confirmed the latest meeting and venue, saying: “The councillor felt the was too small.”
Field quoted from renowned historian and former senior Eastern Cape ANC government official Dr Jeff Peires’s book The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856-7, saying: “Gxarha is a name which is associated with the most tragic and desolate time in the history of the Xhosa nation”.
She said Morgan Bay was a brand-name tourist resort.
Mali was shown the letter but declined to comment, saying only that Field should raise her argument at the meeting. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Name row in Morgan Bay
The Gxarha river 18km away is where prophetess Nongqawuse reportedly had her visions leading to the cattle slaying and mass starvation of the Xhosa in 1857.
Morgan Bay was named after a Captain Morgan who was in charge of a coastal survey ship in 1822, said Morgan Bay resident Dawn Field.
There have also been rumbles over the changing of the place, time and date of a public hearing called by the Eastern Cape geographical names committee to “standardise” names in the Great Kei Municipality.
ANC councillor Mluleki Templeton Mali yesterday confirmed the hearing would go ahead in the rural areas at the Makazi Red Cross community hall at 10am tomorrow.
Field said: “That is 40km away. It is a trick. But a lot of people are going, including from the township, where a lot of people are unhappy.
“This is his own initiative. He has changed the date three times and now the venue changes. Why change the time from 3pm to 10am if he is supposedly trying to accommodate more people? Is he trying to stop people coming? It is a helluva trek to get there.”
Mali confirmed he made the name change proposal in the name of the “community and as an individual” but denied he was manipulating the public participation process.
“The name came from the community. Even people in Morgan Bay know it as Gxarha,” Mali said.
“The consensus in our meeting was that anyone can submit any name. It will depend on the majority of the people.
“I proposed the name and she can raise her opposition vehemently in the meeting so that the community of the area can be convinced.
“It is not a pushover thing.”
Amathole district manager of cultural affairs Nomagezi Nodada confirmed the latest meeting and venue, saying: “The councillor felt the was too small.”
Field quoted from renowned historian and former senior Eastern Cape ANC government official Dr Jeff Peires’s book The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856-7, saying: “Gxarha is a name which is associated with the most tragic and desolate time in the history of the Xhosa nation”.
She said Morgan Bay was a brand-name tourist resort.
Mali was shown the letter but declined to comment, saying only that Field should raise her argument at the meeting. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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