A PROPOSAL to change the name of Richards Bay to Mandlazini has landed before the City of uMhlathuze’s Executive Committee.
This after a submission was made by the Mthiyane Traditional Authority to the KZN Department of Arts and Culture for possible name changes, including changing the John Ross Highway to Inkosi Mqedi Highway.
The uMhlathuze Council was first advised of the name change proposal during a presentation in August 2012 by representatives from the Department of Arts and Culture.
Richards Bay is named after Frederick William Richards of County Wexford, Ireland.
In October 1878, he was appointed Commander for the West Coast of Africa and upon hearing of the British defeat at Isandhlwana in Zululand, landed on the East Coast.
His ship HMS Forester surveyed the nearby coast in 1879 and his map is the earliest to record the Mhlathuze Lagoon as ‘Richards Bay’.
When the then government decided to develop a new harbour on the north coast, it chose this respective bay, and the town and harbour of Richards Bay was subsequently established.
As a result, the then government, allegedly without consulting the Mthiyane or Mandlazini Tribe, confiscated the land in the mid-70s and relocated the community to Ntambanana.
According to the KZN Department of Arts and Culture, renaming Richards Bay to Mandlazini will emphasise the hardship of members of the Mandlazini Tribe, who were displaced to allow for the development of Richards Bay and to honour their suffering.
John Ross Highway
Representatives of the Provincial Geographical Names Committee have also suggested that Council give consideration to the possible name change of the John Ross Highway to Inkosi Mqedi Highway.
Approval was requested in 2006 by Inkosi M Mthiyane of the Mambuka Tribal Authority for the proposed fencing and protection of an important gravesite where Inkosi Mqedi and close family members are buried.
The gravesite is located between the John Ross Highway and the Mondi Paper Mill.
The busy highway is named after John Ross – the 14 year-old boy who together with 30 Zulu warriors walked to Delagoa Bay, spanning 600km to get medical supplies for early setters of Port Natal.
Consideration
At the uMhlahuze Exco meeting on Tuesday, Council recommended that the possible name changes be referred to the various political party caucuses and sent back to Exco for further consideration.
‘This submission has come to Council to be supported in principle to initiate the due processes in terms of legislation including public participation. This is just an introduction of the subject matter,’ said Deputy Municipal Manager: City Development, Lindani Khoza.
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