Port Elizabeth has officially been renamed. It is now called Gqebera.
The name change became official on Tuesday when it was approved and gazetted by the minister of sports, arts, and culture, Nathi Mthethwa.
Port Elizabeth falls under the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and a number of other places in the city were also renamed this week. Uitenhage is now called Kariega and Port Elizabeth Airport’s new name is Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport.
Gqebera was a name that was also used for Walmer, a township in the area.
Stuurman was a chief of the Khoi people who opposed colonial rule at the beginning of the 19th century and is the only man to have escaped from Robben Island twice. He was finally sent as a prisoner to Australia in 1823 where he died.
Other places in the Eastern Cape that received official new names this week were King William’s Town, now Qonce; Maclear which has been renamed Nqanqarhu; and East London Airport, which will henceforth be known as King Phalo Airport.
Reaction to the renaming was mixed, with some praising the move while others condemned it as a waste of money in a time when South Africa finds itself increasingly broke.