Administrative Capital Pretoria hands in its name

Name change campaign: "A future where our grandchildren's children will be far removed from the poison of apartheid."

Pretoria handed in its name in exchange of the new name Tshwane.

The Tshwane City Council voted to retain the name Pretoria for the city centre only, whereas the name Tshwane will refer to the greater metropolitan area.

The council authorised the municipal manager to affect all the necessary legal and administrative procedures to register the geographical area that constitutes the municipality as a city with the name Tshwane.

In his closing speech at the council meeting Tshwane mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa said he hoped for a future where his grandchildren's children were far removed from "the poison of apartheid" and in which issues such as name changes would have ceased to be of consequence.

Democratic Alliance Tshwane caucus chief whip Natasha Michael questioned why the opinions of international representatives of embassies were not requested in the report. "Imagine the costs to the local businesses that have to change all references of Pretoria to Tshwane... it is nothing more than an economic nightmare," Michael said.

"Tshwane, the substitute name, has less substantiation behind it than the mythical island of Atlantis. Any other name could have been chosen," DA councillor Derek Fleming told the council.

(Source: www.iol.co.za / 7 March 2005)

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