The Port Alfred name-change challenge could impact fundamentally on SA’s democracy as it addresses the fundamental right to meaningful public participation.
That is the view of attorney Marius Coetzee, who is representing the Port Alfred Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association (Parra) in its opposition to the Eastern Cape Provincial Geographical Names Committee’s proposals.
The committee wants to change the name of the Sunshine Coast town to iCawa or iCoyi, and the name of its Kowie River to iQoyi.
Coetzee was speaking on Friday at a media briefing focused on the latest Eastern Cape name-change battles under way in Port Alfred and the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet.
Coetzee said in the case of Port Alfred, the provincial geographical committee had failed to supply proper notice when it initiated the name changes in mid-2025.
He said the Port Alfred proposals rested on “a false sense of precedent” stemming from name changes that had already been made on the back of similarly flawed participation processes.
“That is why this case really matters. We see it as a line in the sand.
“Meaningful public participation ensures ordinary people are properly heard.
“Without it, this process is not lawful and ... you must not move beyond that.”
He said this lack of meaningful consultation was a “systemic problem” in many proposals driven forward by the state.
Coetzee said the ratepayers’ and residents’ association was never formally alerted about the proposed Port Alfred name changes and had only by chance spotted a notice circulating in this regard in July 2025.
“We wrote to the council again, asking for more information ... but that is still lacking.
“So we have now approached the Makhanda high court to get the process declared unlawful.”
November 19 has been set down for the court ruling on the matter.
Meanwhile, attorney Derek Light said the geographical names committee’s proposal to change the name of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town had first materialised in November 2023.
A string of meetings followed, with a similar lack of opportunity for the public to become meaningfully involved, so the forum appointed a Stellenbosch urban research expert to survey the name change proposal.
A team of post graduate students conducted a survey that found that 83.6% of residents did not want the name to be changed.
“It’s indicative that the name of Graaff-Reinet has lost its colonial origins.”
Established in 1786, Graaff-Reinet is the oldest town in the Eastern Cape.
It was named after Cape Colony governor Cornelis van der Graaff and his wife, Reynet.
Meanwhile, in February 2026, sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie, who had initially said he was not going to entertain name-change proposals, gazetted the change of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town.
Light, representing the Graaff-Reinet economic development forum, said the gazette notice was disturbing because it happened without warning but also because it included no reference to the public now having a month to comment on the change.
“So for that reason alone it was invalid.”
He said the forum had nevertheless submitted its objections to the name change and, a month later, with no response received, they put the minister on terms.
Light said McKenzie had subsequently engaged with the forum and the expectation now was he would respond by the end of July.
He said it was clear that anti-apartheid struggle leader Robert Sobukwe was an iconic figure, deserving of recognition.
However, the Graaff-Reinet economic development forum’s view was that the town should not be named after him.
This was in line with the current government’s own policy that towns should not be named after individuals.
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