In just over a month, Grahamstown will know once and for all whether it remains Grahamstown. The deadline for a name-change decision comes as municipal bosses have promised to release five-year-old video material key to the debate.
In just over a month, Grahamstown will know once and for all whether it remains Grahamstown. The deadline for a name-change decision comes as municipal bosses have promised to release five-year-old video material key to the debate.
The Makana Council went out with a bang at its final meeting for the year, last Wednesday, resolving that before the end of January Council would pronounce on whether the city's name will change or not. It was recommended that a special workshop for councillors be held on 15 January to familiarise them with the issues. The current councillors came into office last year. Four days later, on 18 January, a public debate – similar to the one recently organised by Grocott's Mail – would be held. The city's fate would be sealed in the following Council meeting.
The municipality engaged in extensive consultations in 2008 after the name-change was first proposed.
Municipal spokesperson Mncedisi Boma explained this week that meetings had been held at eight community venues in Makana. The format of these consultations was a 20-minute video outlining the issues at stake, followed by a debate.
While some opposing the proposed name-change have claimed that video-recordings of these consultations would clearly show opposition to a name-change, Boma said this week that participants at seven of the eight venues were in favour of change.
However, there could be as much as 24 hours' worth of unedited video footage.
It is not realistic to watch the videos of the sessions at this workshop, as there were eight sessions lasting between 2-3 hours, said Boma this week. The Council will find a few credible and objective people to do a review of all the videos and then present a summary to the council for public information.
Boma acknowledged there were members of the public who had shown interest in seeing the videos, but that it was unrealistic for anyone to sit through all of the material.
It would be viable to show the councillors the 20-minute video used in the original process, Boma said. In the same month the Fingo Festival will also host and facilitate a name-change debate, and will introduce aspects of Grahamstown's 200-year history.
This will promote a greater exchange of ideas and dialogue related to the name change, among community members.
Boma's strategic management team, the Executive Mayor's office and councillor Julia Wells, who is chairperson of the name-change task team, have agreed that the latest programme should be prioritised for funding from the name-change budget.
Municipal spokesperson Mncedisi Boma said last week the directorate of social services would oversee the workshop for councillors and produce a comprehensive report on it. Boma said they would also appoint an objective body to analyse the videos which were taken during a public participation process five years ago.
