{"id":844658,"date":"2025-11-26T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=844658"},"modified":"2025-11-26T15:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:58:47","slug":"more-name-changes-on-the-cards-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/844658\/more-name-changes-on-the-cards-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"More name changes on the cards for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has noted that 104 applications<\/strong> for name changes in the country have been submitted to it over the past financial year and in 2025 to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a parliamentary Q&A from the EFF’s Thapelo Mogale, Minister Gayton McKenzie broke down the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that 53 name change applications had been brought in the 2024\/25 financial year, largely from the KwaZulu-Natal structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KwaZulu-Natal applied for 46 name changes, with the Eastern Cape applying for four. This was followed by two applications from Limpopo and one in Gauteng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 2025\/26 financial year to date, commencing 1 April 2025, the department has received 51 applications, again mostly originating from KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, KZN has applied for 38 changes, followed by the Eastern Cape with nine. Limpopo has again submitted two applications, with the North-West and Free State submitting one each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name changes remain a highly contentious issue in South Africa, with proponents seeing changes to the names of historic towns, cities and other features as crucial to moving on from the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, critics of the changes argue that the processes are often driven by political agendas, do not reflect the wishes of the communities, and have a negative economic impact on the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, South Africa has officially gazetted and renamed over 1,500 geographical features across the country, including towns, settlements, rivers, mountains, roads, and airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KwaZulu-Natal has seen the highest number of name changes in democratic South Africa, followed closely by the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 saw some significant changes, including the renaming of William Nicol<\/strong> in Joburg to Winnie Mandela; Ladysmith<\/strong> to uMnambithi; Kirkwood<\/strong> to Nqweba; Graaff-Reinet<\/strong> to Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe; Aberdeen<\/strong> to Camdeboo; and East London<\/strong> to KuGompo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year has also seen a slew of proposed name changes, such as the renaming of towns like Harrismith and Smithfield due to cultural sensitivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee announced in August that it had started the process of renaming Port Alfred<\/strong>, Alexandria<\/strong>, and the Kowie River<\/strong> as part of a broader effort to replace colonial-era names with indigenous ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauteng has also presented its fair share of name change proposals, though not for any major towns or cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has instead focused on changing street names\u2014including a highly controversial ploy to change the name of Sandton Drive\u2014as well as proposing to change the name of Lanseria International Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misunderstanding the process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Feeding into the narrative of name change proposals being political tools more than community-driven desires are the many failed attempts by politicians to force changes without going through the proper channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, a proposal was put forward in the Mpumalanga legislature to change the name of the Kruger National Park to the Skukuza National Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, both the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries made it clear that this had no legal bearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naming and name changes are handled by different spheres of government, and typically cannot be unilaterally passed without engaging in a consultation process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National features and names are processed through the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC), which falls under the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process of changing a name typically begins with proposals for a name change at the community level, where individuals, communities, or institutions submit a name change proposal to the relevant Provincial Geographical Names Committee (PGNC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public consultations are then facilitated by the PGNC in the affected area, ensuring compliance with the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following consultations, the SAGNC then initiates its verification and recommendations after assessing historical relevance, community support, and technical accuracy related to the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the processes have been followed, the changes then go for final approval by the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, followed by gazetting of the approved name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, depending on what feature is being named, the process may fall under a different department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the naming of streets and municipalities does not fall under the jurisdiction of the SAGNC and is instead managed by local municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the Kruger National Park, it is South African National Parks (SANParks) that is responsible for naming the country\u2019s national parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a competency under the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, which is currently under DA minister Willie Aucamp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has noted that it has received over 100 applications for name changes in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":831114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[17963,18983],"class_list":["post-844658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-parliamentary-qa","tag-the-department-of-sports-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844676,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844658\/revisions\/844676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}