After Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa gazetted the renaming of Eastern Cape towns and airports, despite opposing submissions, the DA said the ANC government had gone too far.
Port Elizabeth residents woke up on Wednesday in the city of Gqeberha. No, this isn’t the South African version of
From Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha: Name change rattles SA
The name change has proved to be highly controversial. The DA’s Michael Cardo was scathing in his reaction, slamming the government for failing to ‘get their priorities right’.
“The Eastern Cape has the highest unemployment rate in the country, according to today’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (52.4% on the expanded definition, almost 10 percentage points more than the national rate). But, hey, its towns and airports have a new bunch of names. #Progress”.
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image captionThe city s pier is a popular tourist attraction
Many South Africans are learning how to pronounce Gqeberha, the new name for the city of Port Elizabeth.
It is the Xhosa name for the Baakens River, which flows through the city.
Xhosa is one of South Africa s 11 official languages and one of the few in the world that has a click sound, which can be difficult for non-Xhosa speakers to master.
One tweeter reflected the views of many: My Xhosa people. Teach us. How do you pronounce Gqeberha?
Some have been giving each other a little help. One tweeter broke it down phonetically, saying the Gqe was a tongue click, bear for be and adding a guttural g before the ha: Click bear gha.