‘Gqeberha means nothing’ – NMB mayor moves to scrap Port Elizabeth name change

This comes less than a week after government announced the name change.  

Last week, Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa approved new names for Port Elizabeth and the Port Elizabeth Airport. 

Port Elizabeth was renamed Gqeberha, while the PE International Airport was unveiled as the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport. 

The name changes caused a stir across the country. 

Bhanga believes the name has no significance for the city’s people.  

“The mayor believes that the process was not done correctly, first of all in not being consultative to the people of then Port Elizabeth, Gqeberha and he believes the name change was not inclusive enough. It’s been changed to a name that has no resonance with residents of Nelson Mandela of all walks of life,” says his spokesperson Morne Steyn. 

“The mayor has said himself that the name, in Xhosa, has no meaning. It’s simply a place name, it has no meaning which people can actually resonate with.” 

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He says the process to elect a new name was not transparent.  

“This matter needs to be resolved as soon as we can otherwise we’re going to be sitting with massive expenses incurred for no reason when in fact we believe the expenses that are going to be incurred are avoidable, especially in this time that the country is going through this. 

“We should be avoiding any kind of expense that is not absolutely necessary to service delivery and improving the lives on a daily basis,” says Steyn. 

Steyn adds Nqaba will write to Mthethwa before taking any further action. 

“Should the minister not respond positively we will then take advises to see how we can resolve this thing going forward.”