Tuesday, October 20, 2009

More name changes ( I can't even pronounce them)

Mbombela - The name of Mpumalanga's capital city has been changed from Nelspruit to Mbombela.This follows Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana's publication on Friday in the government gazette of a list of 42 geographical name changes which she had approved between July 28 and September 2 this year.
"Some of the approved name changes in Mpumalanga are Belfast to eMakhazeni, Waterval Boven to Emgwenya, Machadodorp to eNtokozweni, and Nelspruit to Mbombela," said department spokesperson Premi Appalraju on Monday.
She said Xingwana's approval followed the recommendation of the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC).

So we now went on honeymoon, and spent our first night at Emgwenya, then drove through to Mbombela in Mpumalanga.....the mind boggles, why does it bother me actually? well I guess I can answer that question, I was born there and I can fully understand the changing of names that were old Apartheid Icons, but it has gone quite crazy. First they changed the names of the airports all named after Boer / Nationalist leaders such as Jan Smuts and D.F Malan or even B.J.Voster to simply Johannesburg International, Cape Town International, but then they (the ANC) have done exactly the same and gone and changed Johannesburg International to OR Tambo?? Where is the logic (or dare I say...is this Apartheid in reverse) and now even more changes. Can't even pronounce the new Pretoria City Council name???

No comments: