No, not to Guptastan.

Minister of Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, recently suggested that South Africa should change its name to Azania.

Speaking to an ANC cadre’s forum over the weekend, he said that “the name is just a geographical reference and should be changed just as other apartheid and colonial era names were changed”.

The idea was seconded by African People’s Convention’s president, Themba Godi, who said we should learn from the likes of Namibia and Zimbabwe – formerly South West Africa and Rhodesia.

Below from IOL:

Resident Bhekisisa Khanyeza said it was unacceptable for a liberated country to continue with a colonial name.

Mthethwa, whose department is in charge of naming public areas, said the ANC had never given itself time to think about the name of the country.

“To tell the truth, the country does not have a name. It is not there,” he said.

Mthethwa said although the government had made strides in changing the colonial names of some places, there was more to be done. He called on South Africans to assist in identifying improper names, such as Durban and Empangeni.

Responding to Mthethwa’s comments, ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said that the party had yet to take a stance on the matter.

As you can imagine, the reactions are mixed:

When the Cape Argus took to Twitter and the streets, the majority of Capetonians did not support name changing. In a Twitter poll, 62% of respondents tweeted that the name should not be changed, while 25% questioned why it should be changed. The majority of the Cape Argus’s Facebook community were also against it.

You can find individual reactions HERE, but let’s enjoy a quick history lesson;

South Africa only became recognised as such in 1961 after the Union of South Africa adopted a new constitution and became the Republic of South Africa.

The Union was comprised of the Cape of Good Hope Province (Cape Province; previously Cape Colony), Natal Province (Natal Colony), the Orange Free State Province (Oranje Vrij Staat/Orange River Colony) and the Transvaal Province (Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek/Transvaal Colony), along with the other territories of Transkei and Ciskei…

Changing one’s name is a costly affair too – between 2012 and 2016, the Czech Republic spent $42m (just over half a billion rand) on a tourism branding campaign to market itself, months before changing its official English name to Czechia.

If it took the Czechs close to half a billion rand, who knows what it would cost us once all those sticky fingers had been yanked from the honey jar.

Azania – does it have a decent ring to it?

[sources:iol&iol&iol]