With both the Minister of Arts and Culture and his department staying firmly out of the fray, it’s up to the Eastern Cape Provincial Geographical Names Committee (ECPGNC) to respond to a court application seeking to stay the Port Alfred and Kowie River name change process.
The Port Alfred Ratepayers and Residents Association (PARRA) on December 2 filed court papers that seek to interdict the current process to rename Port Alfred and the Kowie River on the basis that it’s unlawful.
Through their lawyer Marius Coetzee of De Jager Lordan, PARRA argues that the public participation process so far undertaken by the ECPGNC fails to meet the requirements of the acts that govern how they should be done.
In their papers, PARRA says the public participation process didn’t comply with the requirements of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act {PAJA).
PARRA says the way the ECPGNC has acted so far goes against the policies published in the South African Geographical Names Council’s handbook and the ECPGNC’s own published policy: PARRA argues that notice of the public participation process wasn’t published within the prescribed timeframes and the ECPGNC failed to provide the information that stakeholders needed to meaningfully engage with the process.
The Notice of Motion cites as first respondent arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie, with Eastern Cape Department of Sport Arts Recreation and Culture (DSRAC) MEC Sibulele Ngongo, Ndlambe Local Municipality, the SAGNC and the ECPGNC second, third, fourth and fifth respondents.
PARRA has also requested a cost order against the SAGNC and ECPGNC.
The name change proposal was first made public in July, when a letter from secretariat head of the ECPGNC Mark Mandita, addressed to Ndlambe Local Municipality stakeholders and shared by the municipality’s committees department, invited stakeholders to a consultation on August 6 in the Port Alfred Civic Centre.
“ECPGNC has received applications to standardise some geographical features in the Ndlambe Local Municipality.
“It is against this backdrop that you are cordially invited to the Ndlambe Local Municipality stakeholders’ consultation meeting,” Mandita wrote in a letter date July 24.
The proposed name changes are: Port Alfred to iCoyi or iCawa; the Kowie River to iQoyi; Alexandria to Nkosi Chungwa or Emnyameni.
The ECPGNC is a body established by the MEC for Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture.
Its mandate is to “facilitate the transformation and standardisation of geographical names and ensure the implementation of standardised geographical names in the province (Eastern Cape), as part of the country’s transformation agenda” Mandita explained in his letter.
Emotions ran high at the August 6 meeting, as well as subsequent meetings in Port Alfred and Alexandria. Arguments against the process cited the cost both to administrative changes as well as the larger, less tangible cost of rebuilding a brand for a tourism destination from scratch. Arguments in favour included the need for social reparation following decades of colonial and apartheid oppression and the suppression of indigenous culture.
Dispatch sister publication Talk of the Town was unable to reach ECPGNC chairperson Christian Martin for comment; however DSRAC spokesperson Andile Nduna sad the matter was receiving attention from their legal team.
For this reason, “providing any comment at this point would be inappropriate”.
Spokesperson for McKenzie, Stacey-Lee Khojane, said the Minister would not be responding to TOTT’s enquiry.
Deputy director general of Heritage Promotion and Preservation in the Department of Sport Arts and Culture Vusithemba Ndima said: “The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) wishes to clarify that the application for the proposed renaming of Port Alfred and the Kowie River have not been submitted to the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC), to the Department or the Minister as required by the South African Geographical Names Council Act.
“DSAC has also not received the court application. As such, we are not in a position to provide substantive comment on the procedural concerns raised.
“A detailed response will be provided once both the name change and court application are formally submitted and considered through the prescribed processes.”
While Ndlambe Municipality hasn’t replied to TOTT’s query, we understand from a reliable source that they are unlikely to engage regarding the court action.
If PARRA’s legal team doesn’t receive notice of intention to oppose within 15 days of the notice of motion being served on them, the matter will be set down for hearing in the Makhanda High Court at 9.30am on February 3, 2026.
Talk of the Town
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