We all drink from the same container

It seems to me that the meaning of the word "Mbombela" is creating problems.

When I wrote the book Pioneers of the Lowveld I explained that when the Nelspruit Health Committee was formed in 1912, people were living over a widespread area between Nelspruit and Mataffin. Then in 1922 the Village Council of Nelspruit was formed and a black township was proclaimed a year later, east of Nelspruit, known as Mbombela and named by the inhabitants themselves, because they were now being confined to an over-crowded space. The passenger train from Komatipoort
to Pretoria was always filled to capacity and jokingly referred to as the Mbombela train – it was however never named as such and had nothing to do with the name Mbombela. After the new dispensation in 1994 I was asked to suggest a name for the new municipality because the various towns, such as White River, Hazyview, Nelspruit, Kaapsehoop, KaNyamazane, etc. were now controlled by one municipality, it was suggested that the name should be Mbombela because these towns would now
be “confined” to one municipality. Being an historian I thought it appropriate
that Mbombela Township, relocated to KaNyamazane between the period
1971 and 1979, would then also be remembered.
I further explained that when people gather for a feast they would drink beer from a container, known as an mbombela, because everybody drank from the same container. The new municipality should use the mbombela clay pot as a symbol that all will now be “drinking” from (and paying) the same municipality. I do not
understand, however, how the name Mbombela fits in to the city’s new name
as it cannot be reasoned that people are now suddenly living in a crowded area.
Each town must retain its identity so as to destinguish between the town and the
municipality, such as in the case of Kaapsehoop, Hazyview and others that all fall under Mbombela Municipality.

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