Renamed Cities and Towns in South Africa
Municipal and city renaming has been one of the most visible forms of change in post-apartheid South Africa. Many of these changes affect places that are widely known internationally, which means both the old and new names continue to circulate in maps, travel writing, and everyday conversation.
Metropolitan areas
Several of South Africa's largest urban centres have seen their metropolitan municipality names changed even where the core city name has not. Pretoria, for example, remains the common name for the city itself, while the surrounding metropolitan municipality is officially known as the City of Tshwane. This distinction, a single city name sitting inside a differently named metropolitan area, is a recurring pattern across the country and often causes confusion for newcomers.
Port Elizabeth, a name long associated with the Eastern Cape coast, was formally changed to Gqeberha as part of a broader renaming of places tied to colonial history. The surrounding metropolitan municipality is known as Nelson Mandela Bay, a name that was adopted earlier and is now firmly established in everyday use, including in sporting and tourism contexts.
Smaller towns
Beyond the major metros, numerous smaller towns have also been renamed, often reflecting names used by local communities before colonial-era names were imposed. Pietersburg, in Limpopo province, became Polokwane. Louis Trichardt, also in Limpopo, was renamed Makhado, after a local Venda leader, although the name change there has at times been contested and partially reversed in practice for certain features within the town.
Other examples include changes to town names in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, where names referencing colonial administrators or settlers have been replaced with names reflecting local languages and history. The pace and acceptance of these changes vary considerably from town to town, and it is common to find older road signs, maps, or business names still referencing a former name years after an official change.
Streets and public spaces
Renaming has not been limited to towns and cities. Many streets, especially in city centres, have been renamed to honour figures from South Africa's liberation history. This has happened extensively in cities such as Durban, where a significant number of central streets were renamed in a coordinated process some years ago. As with town names, both old and new street names often remain in parallel use for an extended period, particularly on older signage, in long standing business addresses, and in documents predating the change.
Reading about these towns and cities today
When researching South African towns and cities, it helps to keep a few points in mind:
- Postal and municipal records may use the current official name, even if local usage still favours an older one.
- Historical documents, older guidebooks, and pre-1994 maps will almost always use the earlier name.
- News coverage, especially from the period immediately around a renaming, can help clarify when and why a specific change occurred.
- Not every proposed renaming is finalised. Some remain under discussion for years without a formal change being gazetted.
Because of this layered history, it is common for a single place to have been known by more than one name across different periods, and for residents to use both the former and current names interchangeably depending on context.