Name Change hearings set for March 2008

Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
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Date: 06 Nov 2007
Title: Name change hearings set for March 2008
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By Shaun Benton

Parliament - Public hearings on the standardisation of geographical names are to be held around the country from March next year.

Speaking at the media briefing on the Programme of Action for government's social cluster, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said the public hearings would help to reach a national consensus towards procedures that "we all accept and which we all embrace."

Addressing Tuesday's briefing, whose other members include the Departments of Health, Education, Housing, Agriculture and Social Development, the minister said there had been too much controversy around the issues thus far.

Mr Jordan said the legislation governing the name change process has been in place since 1996 and this will be used as a benchmark for the process in the future.

"There are a couple of considerations which always have to be weighed with respect to the standardisation of geographical names. One consideration is the linguistic integrity of indigenous languages."

Dr Jordan explained that many names of places on dated maps, especially those from the apartheid era, have incorrectly spelt names or are simply corrupted versions of the original words in South Africa's indigenous languages.

"A number of names, in fact, I would say the majority of names you have in the old maps and atlases that are derived from indigenous names are usually corrupted. So that's the first thing that has to be attended to.

"The second is names that are offensive and degrading," the minister said.

Dr Jordan said there are certain procedures for changing and standardising names, according to the legislation, regarding the use of words from South Africa's vernacular as part of the process of transformation of the country.

He said a substantial body of the citizens of a place may approach the South African Geographical Names Commission or the provincial geographical names commissions to make a proposal about the names changes.

"It is then up to either the local authority or the provincial authority to then test public opinion on that matter, and having tested public opinion, has then the right to make a submission, either to the provincial or the national Geographical Names Commission," Dr Jordan explained.

The national or provincial commission would then examine "the motivation for the name-change" and then make a submission to the Minister of Arts and Culture.

From that point, the minister would either approach, place on hold or reject the recommendation for the change, according to certain criteria, Dr Jordan said.

"What we would propose to do is to get some sort of consensus around the acceptance of that methodology and those procedures, because it's our sense that there is a lot of incomprehension about the procedures although they've been around for 12 years," he said.

A lot of material has been published about the procedures for name changes, many of which are available at government's one-stop information centres.


Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said to popularise South Africa's national symbols, at least 2 000 South African flags have been installed at schools and at strategic entry points to certain cities and towns, as well as government institutions. - BuaNews