After Pretoria (now Tshwane) 15 cities across South Africa are likely to be subjected to name changes. Port Elizabeth is one of them.

Port Elizabeth or PE, so named when the 1820 British settlers landed there 185 years ago, is likely to become eBhayi or Nelson Mandela City after the National Geographical Names Council listed it among towns and cities that need to review their colonial-era names.

Two more Eastern Cape towns listed for possible name changes are East London, to be called Buffalo or Emondi, and Grahamstown to be called iRhini.

Other cities and towns listed are Nelspruit (Mbombela), Kimberley (name still undetermined), Burgersfort (Tubatse), Grobblersdal (undetermined), Durban (eThekwini), Pietermaritzburg (Musunduzi), Krugersdorp (Mogale City), Bloemfontein (Mangaung), George (Quteniqua) and Potchefstroom (Tlokweng).

Johannesburg and Cape Town will not change names.

In letters to all nine provincial premiers, names council chairman Tommy Ntsewa urged them to drive the process of submitting new names for registration.

"The challenge to ensure that South African maps reflect our African identity and heritage remains so huge, thereby requiring some urgency by all affected municipalities as we affirm our names, our heritage and our being," he said.

Historical Society of Port Elizabeth chairman Bill Wright was in favour of retaining the original name because of historical connection with the initial naming of the city after Elizabeth Donkin.

"Sir Rufane Donkin named the city after suffering the heartbreaking loss of his young wife in India. Port Elizabeth is an internationally known and recognised name. I am also not in favour of using political leaders as names for cities," he said. 

"If the name is changed, especially to the colloquial nickname of eBhayi, our identity will largely be lost internationally."

(Source: Saturday Argus / 13 August 2005)

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