“We’ll Still Use the Old Name”: Mzansi Unimpressed by Another Eastern Cape Town Name Change
- The Eastern Cape Provincial Geographical Names Committee advanced plans to rename Lady Grey, a town established in 1858, to Inkosi Makhobeni
- Two other Eastern Cape towns, Sterkspruit and Herschel, are also set to receive new names honouring historic traditional leaders
- South Africans pushed back hard against the renaming drive, saying the government was using name changes to distract from failing to deliver basic services
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Lady Grey, a small Eastern Cape town that has carried its colonial name for 168 years, is set to be renamed Inkosi Makhobeni. The Eastern Cape Provincial Geographical Names Committee is driving the initiative as part of a broader effort to replace colonial-era place names with ones that reflect indigenous African history and traditional leadership.
The town was originally named in 1858 after the wife of a British governor. Under the proposed changes, Sterkspruit would become Inkosi Mpangazi, while Herschel would take on the name Inkosi Lihlongo, according to the local publication The South African shared. All three new names honour historic traditional leaders from the region.
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Colonial names replaced with traditional titles
The renaming initiative is seen as a cultural reclamation effort, with the provincial committee arguing that the geographic landscape should mirror the identity and history of local communities rather than that of colonial administrators.
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The announcement on the Facebook account The South African, however, was met with significant scepticism from South Africans on social media, many of whom argued that the name changes were a distraction from more pressing issues such as poor service delivery, crumbling infrastructure, and unemployment.
See the news post that sparked the debate in the Facebook post here.
Mzansi unimpressed by Eastern Cape name changes
South Africans left hundreds of comments on The South African's Facebook post, and the mood was largely critical:
User @Lynn Finlay said:
"They can change all of the names, but they will remain the same, not only for the locals but also for the tourism industry. The new names are meaningless."
User @Riaan Von Bentheim Snr asked:
"Show me a town that had a name change and became a more productive and better town."
User @Merle Bruyns said:
"We'll still use the old names."
User @Ross McWilliam added:
"You can't erase history by changing a name."
User @Jodie Prince commented:
"When all else fails, change the name to deflect from failure."
User @Sibbs Gunn summed it up with a few words:
"Clutching at straws."
Source: UGC
3 Briefly News article about the Eastern Cape
- IsiXhosa lecturer Mnu Khaya's video teaching a non-Xhosa speaker the correct way of pronouncing KuGompo City left many social media users in stitches.
- A woman shared an emotional video detailing her frustration with the quality of education in village schools in the Eastern Cape, vowing never to send her own children to one.
- A man from Gqeberha went viral on social media for mocking East London after the news of its new name, Gompo City, surfaced, leaving many viewers entertained.
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Source: Briefly News
