Whether it costs the Makana municipality two cents or R100-million to change the name of Grahamstown and the names of other places and landmarks, the names will change, said Grahamstown mayor Phumelelo Kate on Thursday.
”You cannot equate the transformation of our country to costs. Change must happen and nothing is going to stop it,” Kate was reported as saying in Grocott’s Mail.
Grahamstown councillor Theo Fulani said it was ”disturbing” that people were using the issue of costs as a threat to transformation.
He said no amount of money could be put on the lives of the many freedom fighters that had been lost during the struggle against apartheid.
”If it takes money to transform our country, let it be. We can’t stop, we won’t stop,” said Fulani.
He and Kate were reiterating the municipality’s position on the name-change issue at a media breakfast organised by the municipality on Thursday.
The Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee had identified 58 landmarks and place names in the province to be changed. Grahamstown and either Settlers Hospital or the 1820 Settlers Monument are among the targeted sites. They are among many in South Africa that have a ”bad history” and a ”colonial perspective”.
The Makana council has also asserted its stand on the issue by agreeing ”in principle” to change Grahamstown to iRhini.
”Grahamstown must go. It’s a name we can’t be proud of, considering history and given the baggage that it carries,” said Kate. He said a process to eliminate the name from the books of this country was unfolding.
Meanwhile, a mayoral committee has been set up to take up public participation. The mayor stressed that only names that ”make us have nightmares” will be changed. ”The intention is not to get rid or kill the history and heritage of the Settlers.”
However, he said, a balance was needed.
While some residents have objected to the town being renamed iRhini, the mayor said that is what the town would be renamed to unless the community came up with a different name.
The mayor said he did not believe the town was divided along racial lines on the name-change issue.
Kate said people of Grahamstown agreed that the name Grahamstown should go, it was just the new name that the locals had differences about. — Sapa