In a unanimous decision at a meeting of around 80 people in Grahamstown's BB Zondani Hall on Thursday, 11 February it was determined that the town's new name will be Makhanda.
In a unanimous decision at a meeting of around 80 people in Grahamstown's BB Zondani Hall on Thursday, 11 February it was determined that the town's new name will be Makhanda.
Explaining the process to be followed after Thursday's meeting executive committee member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Geographical Names Committee’s Zukile Jodwana told Grocott's Mail that what happens after the public hearing is that they present the outcomes of that meeting to the ECPGNC. "The ECPGNC deliberates and checks whether in organising and arriving at the stage where the name has to be standardised or changed we have followed all the necessary processes as the committee," he said. Having satisfied itself with the process the committee then agrees on what to recommend to Department of Arts and Culture MEC Pemmy Majodina.
Before recommedations can be made to the MEC the names that are to be standardised must be published. "The results of these meetings are going to be published in newspapers calling for objections or comments from public," Jodwana said.
Members of the public have 21 days to object to these outcomes from the date of publication of the notice in newspapers. If there are objections a sub-committee that deals with objections within the ECPGNC, will seat and consider the facts that have been submitted and then categorise those objections.
Jodwana said based on the sub-committe's deliberations and after taking consideration of the objections that sub-committee advises the ECPGNC to depending of the nature of the objections, " maybe some will be based on procedural grounds in terms of our own guidelines". "The committee advises us on that context," he said.
The next process will be for the committe to submit the findings to the MEC and to the South African Geographical Names Committee. The final stage is for Thursday's decision to be approved and gazzetted by Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Fikile Mbalula.
Three possible names were proposed: Makhanda, Nxele and Rhini.
Makana councillor Julia Wells outlined the background to the process, and her involvement.
She explained that initially, some were in favour of Rhini, but others said it reminded them of apartheid times, because it was a name used to divide the town’s residents.
There were five other main speakers. Misile Nondzube spoke about the history of the town’s namesake, Colonel John Graham, and the harm he did to black people in the Eastern Cape.
Xhanti Nojoko said people had been very patient and the name Makhanda was long overdue. Andile Hoyi supported Nojoko’s point.
Vukile Skeyi, secretary of Samwu, said the union had met and decided Grahamstown's name must change.
“Some say it is a waste of money,” Skeyi said. “But it cost money to name all the places Grahamstown in the first place,” he argued.
Former mayor Zamuxolo Peter, now a Sarah Baartman Mayoral Committee member, also spoke about the history of the name-change process since 2000.
Around 40 people attended the previous public participation meeting at the Joza Indoor Sports Centre on Thursday, 19 November.
A local organisation formed to oppose the changing of Grahamstown’s name openly boycotted the last public participation meeting, regarding the matter as they believe it is a waste of public resources.
Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG) was considering taking legal action against those facilitating the process.
Jock McConnachie of KGG said at the time that the organisation would not attend the public participation meeting and would not participate in any process concerning the name of Grahamstown, since they had already participated fully in three previous processes since 2007, the outcome of which was not in favour of the name change.
Once the name change is officially signed off by Mbalula, landmark institutions such as the libraries and post office will change their names to Makhanda, which is considered to be the correct spelling of Makana, 19th century Xhosa chief and military leader.
anele@grocotts.co.za
