Councillor Julia Wells, head of the Grahamstown name-change committee, talks to reporter Prudence Mini about how the name-change process started and where it is now.
Councillor Julia Wells, head of the Grahamstown name-change committee, talks to reporter Prudence Mini about how the name-change process started and where it is now.
"In 1998, the government's policy on name changing was formalised with the South African Geographical Names Act. Since then, various structures of government have undertaken to implement the policy, primarily through setting up new structures in Provinces and Districts. These, in turn, then had an obligation to oversee all matters relating to name changing."
On 13 July 2007 Makana Mayor Phumelelo Kate announced that the name Grahamstown "must go", and the Name Change Task Team (NCTT) was formed. The first sitting of the new task team (TT) was on 10 October 2007. Later that year they received submissions on the proposed name change.
"Given the huge range of organisations and community structures that needed to be included in the process, the TT agreed to record the answers to the most frequently asked questions on a DVD in order to simplify communication. It was also decided that the DVD should give space for a range of views as a stimulus to open debate and discussion. From our submissions, we identified four different views and saw that these were all included in the DVD."
On 29 January 2008, an educational campaign drive was announced and a documentary video was developed by the NCTT. On 01 March 2008 a series of public participation meetings was launched at City Hall and the video was showed to the public. It was reported that the scheduled "imbizo" at the City Hall was abandoned due to a lack of attendance, but Wells says that the launch at City Hall was well attended by people from all communities around town and a wide range of views were expressed.
"However, when we went back for what was scheduled as an imbizo to serve the immediate neighbourhood, few people came. At that time it was put on record that we took it that the robust attendance at the launch was deemed to be sufficient indication that this part of town had been consulted."
In April, other meetings followed at Noluthando Hall, Tantyi Hall, Luvuyo Hall and BB Zondani Hall. Wells said that to retain the name or not was never debated in any of these venues, as it was widely accepted that a change was desired.
"Some very strong statements were made in support of changing, but no one indicated a willingness to retain the name of Grahamstown". On 22 May 2008 the municipality issued a media statement calling for further "inputs on the question of changing the name of Grahamstown" to be made by 20 June 2008. Wells said this was due to public requests for more time to roll-out the discussions.
The NCTT was apparently supposed to make a recommendation to the Makana Council by about June 2008. Wells said this did not occur as "the TT was still discussing the most objective way of evaluating the video recordings of all the public participation sessions, along with all other written inputs before any recommendation could be made".
On 19 September 2008 Councillor Wells was quoted as saying that the name change issue had been "taken back" by the Makana Mayor Phumelelo Kate.
On 18 June 2009 the Makana Mayor Phumelelo Kate was replaced by Vumile Lwana. Earlier in the year an item for the municipality to develop a naming policy was raised at the Social Services Portfolio Committee meeting. It was adopted by the council on 24 August 2010. The Municipality then advertised for nominations to serve on the Naming Committee, closing date 29 October 2010.
According to Wells, the new naming committee has to be finalised by the council, probably in early December and will be oriented as to its duties and the prevailing legal framework. "Early in the new year it will be presented with several proposals regarding names to start its deliberations. Setting up a fair process for evaluating all the inputs received to date on the town's name would be one of the first tasks," said Wells.
