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What the country is eventually called should be debated by the nation
Talking and agreeing on a new name for our country should be doable.
A street sign showing the name change of Atlas road that runs from Kempton Park to Brakpan to Solomon Jefferson Mahlangu road pictured in Benoni, 4 October 2021. Picture: Neil McCartney
Nine years after the name was officially changed to Lilian Ngoyi Street – one of the leaders of the 1956 women’s anti-pass law protests – you’d have noticed many still said Bree Street explosion when part of the street in downtown Joburg caved in recently.
When you have the misfortune of using a minibus taxi into the CBD, passengers still shout “Sauer” or “President” when they want to get off at Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Street or Helen Joseph Street. And I am yet to hear a Soweto locals say they are going to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. It is still just simply Bara (which is, by the way, not strictly incorrect).
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During the wholesale changes soon after the ANC came to power “to address the legacy of colonialism and apartheid”, some argued how it was just a waste of taxpayers’ money, when there are better things to spend the money on – such as fighting crime, infrastructure development, building of schools and clinics… I don’t disagree. That’s what the government is supposed to do, but it is not all they are about.
Well, to me, it is a matter of old habits dying hard, rather than a show of resistance to the name changes.
Who remembers PWV (or even Transvaal)? What about Rhodesia, Bechuanaland, Upper Volta, South West Africa, Abyssinia or even Ceylon, Burma or Formosa?
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Not long ago, the renaming of Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha was frowned upon in some quarters. The tricky pronunciation was a butt of jokes to those who disregard its political significance. That, however, should not stop us from finally having a proper name for our beloved country, to replace its geographical nomenclature that we are still using.
I want to say I am Azanian (for argument’s sake), instead of South African (which is anybody from south of the Zambezi, the same way North African is anyone from north of the Sahara desert). What the country is eventually called should be debated by the nation.
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Were we not able to successfully negotiate a peaceful settlement that ushered in the new dispensation? Talking and agreeing on a new name for our country should be doable.
