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Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, says the provincial government will forge ahead with changing colonial place names in the province.
Responding to debate on his State of the Province on Thursday, Mabuyane took aim at name-change opponents, saying that "we are moving ahead with the restoration and cleansing process of removing colonial names in our geographical locations."
The Premier said colonial names will be replaced "with uniquely Eastern Cape names that resonate with our people, such Gqeberha, Dawid Stuurman International Airport, tabozuko, King Phalo Airport, Qonce and Kariega."
He was addressing the outcry following last week's announcement that the name of Port Elizbeth has been changed to Gqeberha and Uitenhage to Kariega, among several name changes gazetted by Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthetwa.
On Thursday, Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, announced the formation of a multi-sectoral committee to push for the reversal of this decision.
But, Mabuyane said while the 1994 democratic breakthrough was the beginning of our collective journey to build a united, nonracial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa, that "moment did not mean we had forgotten our colonial and apartheid past and all the harm it brought to our motherland."
He referred to a speech given by former President Thabo Mbeki at the 2003 Tourism Indaba where the former President also lamented over colonial names and the need for change.
"This narration by former President Mbeki is the essence of why we have to change colonial names. They simply do not originate in our province and have no meaning to our identity. We are kind to the people who sympathise with these names because we will send them to museums to teach our children and tourists about our painful history," the Premier said.
Referring to the changes based on the cost, Mabuyane said "there is no cost high enough to restore the dignity and heritage of our people," while urging name-change opponents to think twice "before you refer to the changing of names, that to us represent violence, terror and oppression in our land, as useless and meaningless."
Taking aim at some DA MPL's, who this week spoke out about the name-changes during debate on SOPA, Mabuyane said "you and other white supremacists, including your lackeys masked in black skin, must think twice before you speak on behalf of the majority on what matters to them and what doesn’t matter to them, especially if you do so while sitting there in the opposition benches."
