Residents of several Eastern Cape towns including Morgan Bay, Port Alfred and Grahamstown will from today have a final say in the renaming of their towns.
Proposals on the table for consideration include renaming the seaside hamlet Morgan Bay to Gxarha, university town Grahamstown to Makhanda or Nxele and Port Alfred to Cawa or – after the province’s first post-apartheid premier – Raymond Mhlaba.
Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee (ECPGNC) spokesman Kenneth Msengana yesterday confirmed that the Kei Mouth, Mooiplaas and Morgan Bay communities would be the first to have public hearings “to try and assess how the public feels about the proposed names for several towns and rivers across the province”.
The Morgan Bay discussion will be held at Nyarha Community Hall in Mooiplaas at 5pm today, a public notice put out yesterday showed.
Morgan Bay resident Dawn Field said: “We will wait and see what will happen at this meeting.
“We have been informed about it and we are going there to say that no one wants to have a name change here.
“From a historical point of view, a tourist point of view, there is no reason to change the name Morgan Bay.”
She said three meetings had already been held, “but all these people want to do is tell us what has to happen and not discuss how people feel about the proposed names”.
“They are wasting money by organising yet another meeting,” said Field.
Msengana pleaded for calm, saying no one was going to impose any name changes.
He said it was only when the community agreed in unity that such change was necessary. “We are following all the necessary processes to ensure that all stakeholders are given an ear,” added Msengana.
The ECGNC programme shows that Grahamstown will also see stakeholders debating on whether the City of Saints may be renamed Nxele or Makhanda at a meeting to be held at Makana community hall at 6pm on February 11.
Makhanda was a Xhosa warrior who was arrested and jailed on Robben Island in the 1800s. He drowned while trying to escape.
Msengana said they would be convening at least 50 similar public meetings across the province until March to “allow all stakeholders to be under one roof and decide on whether the name of each of the affected towns or rivers have to be renamed”.
Other towns that may be renamed are:
- Hogsback to Qabimbola;
- Kei Mouth to Cwili;
- Middledrift to Xesi;
- Fort Beaufort to Maqoma;
- Alexandria to Emnyameni; and
- Somerset East to Nojoli.
Msengana said they had been receiving input from the public and when a change was widely accepted by all affected stakeholders during these public hearings, a report was crafted.
After being advertised for further public scrutiny in local media, the committee would make a recommendation to the national committee.
The committee, in turn, would recommend the names to the minister of arts and culture, who would then gazette them based on all the evidence.
The Daily Dispatch reported last year that other suggestions submitted to the ministry of arts and culture included the spelling of Komgha to be changed to Qumrha and that of Nahoon river and dam to Nxarhuni.
Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa last year officially gazetted the changes of Port of Coega to Port of Ngqurha; Toise River to Toyise; Komgha to Qumrha; Xora to Xhorha; Toleni to Tholeni; Nqeleni to Ngqeleni; and others.
Other well known names to be considered in this week’s round of public hearings are Klipfontein to Harmony Park; Debe-Nek to Chungwa; Peddie to Ngqushwa; Keiskamma River to Xesi; and Water Falls to Ngwenkala.