Algoa FM news file photo
In February the Minister of Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa made a big announcement that the names of some cities, towns and villages were officially changed and gazetted in the Eastern Cape.
Port Elizabeth became Gqeberha, East London Airport was changed to King Phalo Airport and King William's Town officially became Qonce.
This announcement became a hot topic online with PE's new name Gqeberha receiving the most attention.
Name changes are nothing new in South Africa as towns like Aliwal-North and Queenstown changed to Maletswai and Komani over six years ago, not to mention the controversial name change of Grahamstown to Makhanda, which ended up in Court.
But nothing stirred the pot quite as much as the new tongue clicking geographical name - Gqeberha.
Even the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Nqaba Bhanga set up a task team to oppose the name changes.
The public also expressed their concern over how this would affect tourism and their businesses.
The names of the courts do not change, however, with anger over the name change of Grahamstown to Makhanda ironically being argued in the Grahamstown High Court.
In fact, criminal suspects from Maletswai and Komani still appear in the Aliwal North and Queenstown Magistrate’s Courts respectively.
What then is the point of changing the name of a city or town, ostensibly for all the right reasons, if the Judiciary retains the old name?
Algoa FM News spoke to the South African Geographical Names Council chairperson, Khensani Maluleke, and asked him to explain the legislative processes involved when name changes are gazetted.
The Council permanently advises the Minister of Arts and Culture on the transformation and standardisation of geographical names in the country.
According to Maluleke, the name change of a statutory body such as a court does not automatically happen after a new geographical name is gazetted.
He said that a court would have to file a separate application and this would apply to every feature or institution.
"We don't have a blanket application process where it says that now that the name of that area has changed so automatically all the [features] will be affected by that,” he said.
Maluleke said while the court isn’t obligated to change its name according to the South African Geographical Names Council ACT of 1998, the Council encouraged government bodies to start the application process.
"We are not in a position to enforce; for me, it's a situation where we will wait for the process and I think within communities you will find people asking why is there a contradiction...you have this name and this other name is still retained,” he said.
Maluleke added that it would make logical sense for these institutions to apply so there can be consistency.
He said the Council was also looking at making reviews to parts of the Act as it was promulgated in 1998 as a lot has changed since then.
This would be subjected to a review process which would make provision for broader consultation with the public.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said it was in the process of finalising the rationalisation of all magisterial districts in the province and the name changes would be considered when the new court jurisdictions are proclaimed on the 1st of June this year.
The Department started the rationalisation process back in 2014 which intends to widen access to justice by having a court in every municipality and a seat of the High Court in every province.
