Executive Mayor Helen Zille has announced that human rights activist Rhoda Kadalie would chair the panel of experts charged with processing submissions from citizens for name changes in Cape Town.

The panel consists of 17 members who were nominated by the public. They represent a broad range of expertise in history, language, religion, place names and map-making. They include such people as Cape Town Partnership Manager Bulelwa Ngewana, VOC historian Dan Sleigh, language expert Yawa Thozama, history Professor Christopher Saunders, Afrikaans journalist and cultural commentator Melvyn Minnaar, District Six Museum director Valmont Lane, Dean of CAPUT Business Faculty Mohammed Bayat, and others.

Only about 200 of the 350 submissions will be dealt with by the panel because many were outside the terms of reference of the policy. The panel will make its recommendations to Council for its meeting at the end of June and Council will then advertise the names for public objection. The matter will serve before Council again in August and final decisions will be made.

The signage for any new names of streets or buildings will go up in September, Heritage month.


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