Critics warn of economic fallout as supporters call for symbolic change.
The Mpumalanga legislature’s attempt this week to use Heritage Day to change the name of the Kruger National Park (KNP) and Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport outside Mbombela has caused outrage.
However, politicians in the province do not legally have the power to make name changes, according to Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen.
“The legislature does not have the legislative mandate to change names. This has to be done in terms of pre-determined processes that must involve public participation,” said Steenhuisen.
He said all such processes were regulated by the South African Geographical Names Council Act and the government’s own Geographical Names Handbook. These stipulate that name changes have to be proposed to the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, and that there had to be public discussion before any decision could be taken.
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Proposals and public debate
EFF MPL Rhulani Qhibi, in proposing the motion before the Mpumalanga legislature, questioned how “we celebrate our heritage as South Africans when we still have our national parks named after the father of apartheid, Paul Kruger”.
The renaming could affect the KNP, a stadium in eMalahleni, and the province’s main airport. Qhibi proposed renaming KNP to Skukuza National Park, the airport to DD Mabuza International Airport, and the stadium to Veli Mahlangu Stadium.
Political expert Piet Croucamp questioned why the government took so long to rename the park.
“Look, it’s a marketing disaster and it might have financial consequences,” he said. “But if they decided on an appropriate name, I have no qualms about changing the name.”
Croucamp said Kruger was anything but a good politician, a good leader, or an honest politician.
Michael Catterson, of the Travel and Tourism Show on 91.9 FM, said: “The Kruger National Park is an iconic destination. It represents South Africa in the best possible way. That’s why, when it comes to the proposed name change, I disagree.
“It’s not because I don’t support transformation, but because the Kruger National Park is internationally known. It’s a place millions of tourists dream of visiting. Changing the name would affect more than just signage. It would change the park’s identity, its global recognition and even its character.”
TLU chair Bennie van Zyl said it was a sad story that people “were uninformed and lived in their own world”.
“The black people, just like the white people, were second-generation citizens in South Africa. The Khoisan, who were here first, came from the south; the black people came from the north,” said Van Zyl.
“There are so many arguments from the EFF and others, but then all of us have to leave – black and white. It doesn’t work like that anywhere else in the world where you try to rewrite history.”
He said South Africans should rather strive to build new opportunities for the future, instead of digging into the past.
“They are building nothing for the future and want to dwell in the past. Why don’t they build new things and name them what they want?” he said.
Van Zyl said it was not a racial but an expertise exercise.
“They are replacing expertise with racial bias, and that creates a particular problem. That is why the economy is not growing and institutions and infrastructure are collapsing,” he said.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel said while anti-Afrikaner elements in the ruling elite want to change the name of the park and destroy other Afrikaner heritage, AfriForum, the FAK and other institutions of the Solidarity Movement continue to protect and expand the heritage of Afrikaners.
“We continue to build with the knowledge that builders will always defeat destroyers,” he said.
On Heritage Day, Kriel said South Africans could learn again from Kruger’s statement that “we must take what is good from the past and build the future on it”.
“Uncle Paul’s message was that we should not get stuck in the past. But that we should respect our beautiful heritage and use what is good in it as a basis to build innovatively within the demands that the new realities place on us,” he said.
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