'Pretoria' reflects an evil past
2005-05-25 08:44
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I was surprised to hear that there are moves afoot to change Pretoria's name to Tshwane, which is apparently the Xhosa word for "Place of the Moustache".
I share the concerns of people like Steve Hofmeyr and Uli Schmidt, who were both scheduled to take part in a march in support of Pretoria staying Pretoria. I first read about that in the story "March, braai to keep 'Pretoria'" on News24:
"Pretoria - Civic group, students, retired rugby players and political party supporters are to march for the retention of Pretoria's name on Saturday, followed by a braai."
How can they claim that the Afrikaans culture is under threat, when braais still make the news? No, we should start getting worried when government insists we change the name braai to barbeque. THEN we'll know they're getting serious.
The organisers were at pains to reassure everyone that the march would end in time to watch the Blue Bulls losing to the Waratahs.
Who cares?
I can't help thinking, if you're worried about people not turning up to a demonstration because they want to watch rugby, then that's an indication of how unimportant the whole issue is to most people.
But back to Steve and Uli - we all know that the reason they're so sensitive about this renaming thing is because nobody ever spells their names correctly.
Most publications swing between Hofmeyr and Hofmeyer (except for the good people from Huisgenoot, who always get it right because they get so much practice writing it every week). And as for Olie Smit, that well-known ex-hooker, well, enough said.
The one convincing argument against changing the name is that there's a lot of brand equity in the name Pretoria.
It takes decades and millions of rand to build up that sort of brand capital.
Why, even today (despite the dastardly efforts of our evil government), if you're thinking despotic racist regime with jacaranda trees, you automatically think "Pretoria". Changing the name to Tshwane could ruin all this.
Still, as much as I'm for name changes that redress the insults of colonialism, I'm a little worried about the person who appears to be driving this change.
Sith Theo Tlholo
People like Sith Lord Theo Tlholo, for example. (Okay, he's not really a Sith Lord, he's a Councillor. But imagine how much fun it'd be if people had to try and say Sith Theo Tlholo. THEN he'd understand Steve Hasselhoffmeyr's point of view, and wouldn't be so cavalier about name changes).
Councillor Tlholo tells us that it's important to have a single name brand. "Harare is Harare, Windhoek is Windhoek, London is London and New York is New York. There is no other brand name that competes with their brand name."
Excuse me? Windhoek and London? Harare and NEW YORK? Oh, those are all big brands all right.
Why, a man would be hard put to say which was biggest. Harare, probably. And I'm not sure that New York IS a single name brand. But what do I know about marketing?
We are also told, by Pretoria mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, that the name "Tshwane", which means "we are the same" (I lied about the moustache thing earlier), will underscore South Africa's break with apartheid in 1994.
Hm. Shouldn't we be choosing a name that means "we are different" in that case?
Perhaps he's referring to people, rather than history. Although the idea that we are all the same is possibly even more blindly stupid than the idea that we are all different.
Now, before you mail me to bitterly ask me how I'd feel if they changed the name of my beloved Cape Town to e'Xpensiv, the San word for "Place where the Eurotrash run free" - I couldn't care less.
However, I would worry about why they were doing it. I'm against it if it's just part of the game of gaining political capital, as with Darth Peter Marais' abortive attempt to rename Adderley Street "Suckup Alley", and Wale Street "Keep the Baas Happy Boulevard" (or it might have been Nelson Mandela Rd and FW De Klerk St, I can't remember).
But there's no arguing the fact that many of our place names reflect an evil past.
Whether Andries Pretorius was evil or not doesn't matter - we turned the word Pretoria into a byword for oppression, so it needs to change.
Chris Roper bly Chris Roper, unless Securicor buys naming rights, then he's Securicor Roper.
Send your comments to Chris or discuss this column now in our debating forum.
See Chris's previous columns on his blog The World.
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