EFF Believes Durban Is a Racist Name for the City and Wants It Changed
- The EFF has begun pushing for Durban to change its name following the changing of PE to Gqeberha
- The political party believes that the name of Durban has racist roots
- The EFF does not want to stop at Durban but carry on to other cities and provinces in the country
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The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are pushing for another city to change its name. The political party wants to change the name of Durban, claiming that the city's name is racist.
“D’Urban, a British colonial administrator who was denounced by his fellow colonialist John Phillip as a racist who treated Africans as animals,” it said.
The South African reported that the EFF hopes that the ruling party, the ANC, will continue to change names of South African cities to more accurately reflect the people living there, not stopping at Gqeberha but changing Durban next and then cities in the Western Cape.
Source: Instagram
Vusi Khoza, who's with the EFF in KZN, has said that the history behind the name of Durban is racist and it should have been changed a long time ago according to East Coast Radio.
Here are some reactions from social media users to the EFF's suggestion:
@Kwaggaone:
"We are in a disaster stage of our lives and they are thinking of changing names???????????????????"
@Nkulerrrh:
"Vusi must go back to Newcastle and change that name there are no castles here bare in mind EFF doesn't rule KZN we love Durban/Ethekwini as is tell Julius and Floyd to change their indigenous name's first."
Earlier, Briefly.co.za reported that the South African government has officially approved and gazetted 13 name changes from towns to airports. Port Elizabeth is the big one with the Friendly City's name being changed to Gqeberha.
Reports say that the name change process was lengthy and lasted around two years. At this time, residents were given the opportunity to challenge the name changes that were proposed. Back in 2019, PE residents were not impressed by the possible name change.
The PE International Airport and several other towns, such as Berlin, Uitenhage, and King Williams Town's name changes were also recognised by Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
In other news, the plan to rename Cape Town International Airport has been shelved, say reports. The news comes after there was a reported deadlock on which historic icon to name the international airport after.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture said the public consultation process reached a point where the renaming was ditched. During the meeting names such as Krotoa and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Airport were proposed.
The name-changing process has been in motion since 2018 but it seems three years was not enough time to come to a decision.
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Source: Briefly News
