Business not keen on dropping Grahamstown name

Mike Loewe


Local businesses with the name “Grahamstown” in their title have reacted negatively to Makana mayor Pumelelo Kate’s call on Thurslday (4 Sept 07) for them to join “transformation” by getting rid of the word.
Kate told the media that while it was a private matter, those who did not follow the council’s “cue” in seeking to have the name changed to Rhini, would be equated to people “waving the old (South African) flag.
The ‘Rh’ of Rhini is pronounced with a gutteral ‘g’, such as in “gat” (you have to be South African to understand this).
There are 32 businesses and organisations with the word “Grahamstown” listed in the Grahamstown Handbook.
He said: “It would be a serious indictment, the same as if they were waving the old (South African) flag.
Kate said the government did not want to wipe out all unpalatable history, but his council believed that either the Settlers Hospital or the 1820 Settlers Monument had to change the word “settler”.
“One of these names has to go,” he said.
The mayor, with most of the ANC councillors present, was speaking at Rhodes University’s Gavin Relly Post Graduate Village (formerly known as the Settlers’ Motel), outside Grahamstown morning.
Asked about the cost of the name changing exercise, he responded: “It does not matter if it costs two cents or 100 hundred million”, the name had to “go”.
He said: “All of us, black and white, by and large, seem to agree (that Grahamstown had to be dropped).”
He and his council believed that the name had to change to advance “reconciliation in this country”.
He announced the establishment of a council sub-committee headed by councillor and Rhodes historian Julia Wells, which would take the name-change issue forward.
However, he said the council had decided "in principal" that Grahamstown would be replaced by the name, Rhini, which he said was the name used by Africans and had it’s roots in the Khoi word for “place of reeds”.
He said most people in the city associated the name of Grahamstown “with the dominant ruling heritage” of the white-dominated past.
Grahamstown businesses did not respond well to the call.
GBS Mutual Bank MD Tom Tagg reacted with a terse: “No comment. We are the GBS Mutual Bank. That is our official name.”
Settler City Toyota principal dealer Viv Jordan said: “I can’t believe it! Grahamstown has always been a settler city. To us it’s just a name. We are changing our building at a cost of R6.5m: where will the extra money come from if we have to change our name? The cost will be huge. We will have to change our name on the computers, and everything! Customers have known us by that name for many years. It will be like starting a new business again.”
Grahamstown Wheel Alignment Centre owner Vince van Staden said: “Listen buddy, does the mayor think that if I change my name it will change my business? It will do nothing. I am 47 years old, it won’t change me. I will stay Vince van Staden doing the same wheel alignment for my customers -- and 95 percent of them are black people. They carry me on my hands whether I am Grahamstown or Rhini. Why don’t they change the name of Kaiser Chiefs, or Orlando Pirates? They are named after chiefs who killed people? When are these people going to grow up? Apartheid will never come back, not in a million years!”
Grahamstown Foundation director Alan Stephenson said the name 1820 Settlers Monument could only be changed with consensus of the people who built it, the descendants of the 1820 settlers.
Meanwhile, he said the municipal water supply had run dry at the building for the past two weeks, and an 80 percent rate rebate had suddenly ended, leaving the foundation with a R925 000 annual bill.
The issue was being batted about between the council and the foundation, but Stephenson said if the council stuck to their guns, “we might as well close up shop straight away”.
This would deprive Grahamstown and the region of a home for the National Arts Festival, the National Schools Festival, Scifest and other “good projects which bring in a lot of money for the city”.
Stephenson said the foundation had raised the name change issue at a council meeting and were promised by Kate that the matter would go before the Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee.
“He said it had nothing to do with him. This all seems a bit premature on his part.”
He said the monument survived on donations, subsidies and goodwill from the municipality -- “which is not very good today”.
He said the Grahamstown Foundation was open to discussion, “but there must be good reason".
A settler descendant, who asked not to be named, said: “The mayor and his people must get over their hang ups and create a history of their own, but they must not destroy our history.”
“This is a stick. If you don’t comply with their sentiments, you are racist, anti-ANC or the government. We have a brand here. Grahamstown is known overseas. It is on the map. Nobody knows where Rhini is.”
Grahamstown Upholstery and Décor owner Pieter Goosen said: “I have been a Grahamstonian all my life, as were my parents and grandparents. I feel I would not be doing the family name justice if I had to change the name of the business. I probably won’t use the Rhini name even though I don’t have a problem with it because it is part of progress in the country. But this is a settlers’ town. It doesn’t feel right. It will be fine for street names, but forcing it on businesses won’t do the trick. It makes you negative.”
Another business owner, who asked not to be named, said: “I cannot believe it! Nobody will force me. The mayor loves using apartheid and his previous disadvantaged history to justify this sort of thing. You have to respect everyone’s culture and history. Will the mayor pay for it?”
Grahamstown Pharmacy owner Wimpie Bosch said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. They should spend the R100m in Joza. That would be of greater benefit to people. Why must I change my name, just to change my name? It will cost me a lot of money. I can’t see how a name can make you part of the old or new regime. It doesn’t make sense.”
Grahamstown Veterinarian Clinic owner Philip Gilifillan said: “The mayor has even asked the people for their opinion. We have had this name for a long time. I wouldn’t be very happy to change it. This is a bit of a bombshell.”
Grahamstown Home Industries chairlady Bev Francis, speaking in her personal capacity, said: “Imagine what we would sound like: Rhini Home Industries. No, I am not keen to change our name.”
Grahamstown Residents Association chairman Dominic Thorburn said: “In these days of democracy, why not let the process follow its course of setting up a committee and engaging in public consultancy. It feels as if the mayor has pre-empted the issue by presenting a party-political stance, which they will drive through the process. In reality, the mayor is trying to keep the pressure off him over lack of service delivery and crumbling infrastructure in Grahamstown.” -- ECN