Goodbye East London – big name changes coming for South Africa

MEC for Sports, Recreation, Art and Culture in the Eastern Cape, Sibulele Ngongo, says her department is moving ahead with further name changes in the province, with big towns being targeted.

When she delivered her maiden policy address on Thursday (8 August), the MEC said that the department plans to give new names to East London, Aberdeen, and Colchester, among others.

This would add to the significant number of other name changes in the province over the last few years, which included the change from Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha.

Some of the most notable changes in the province in recent years include:

• Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha;
• Morgan’s Bay to Gxarha;
• Cradock to Nxuba;
• Uitenhage to Kariega;
• King Williamstown to Qonce;
• Queenstown to Komani; and
• Grahamstown to Makhanda.

Notably, the province has tried to change the name of East London previously.

In a parliamentary Q&A earlier this year, the minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture noted that a proposal to change the name of East London was the only application of hundreds processed to be rejected.

The minister explained that the application, submitted in 2020, was to change East London to KuGompo. While he did not explain why it was rejected, this was reportedly because there was already a settlement with that name in the metro.

More name changes to come

South Africans should expect a host of name changes in the coming years.

There are currently 66 applications for name changes for several geographical features in South Africa, listed by the South African Geographic Names Council (SAGNC) as being processed.

These name changes will apply to various geographical features across the country as outlined within the SAGNC mandate, including towns, villages, settlements, townships, mountains, rivers, airports, roads, and post offices.

The council has gazetted and named or renamed 1,505 geographical features in South Africa since its inception.

The total number of applications received and gazetted KZN since the start of the geographical names process in the Republic of South Africa stands at 362, while the Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee (ECPGNC) has noted 312.

Aside from naming new geographic features in KwaZulu-Natal in 2023, most of the changed names for towns and cities for that year were in the Eastern Cape.

In 2024, two prominent name changes that were pushed through include renaming Willliam Nicol Drive in Joburg to Winnie Mandela Drive, and renaming Ladysmith in KwaZulu Natal to Alfred Duma.

Read: A lot more name changes coming for South African towns, roads, and others