Cape Town to get new name?

Cape Town 120623 Members of the Khoisan community came together to commemorate the traditional leader and healer of the Khomani San of the Kalahari, Dawid Kruiper, who passed away on the 13th of this month. The gathering also proposed a new Khoisan name for the city of Cape Town suggesting rather //Hui !Gaeb. Picture: Gareth Smit for Weekend/Junior

Cape Town 120623 Members of the Khoisan community came together to commemorate the traditional leader and healer of the Khomani San of the Kalahari, Dawid Kruiper, who passed away on the 13th of this month. The gathering also proposed a new Khoisan name for the city of Cape Town suggesting rather //Hui !Gaeb. Picture: Gareth Smit for Weekend/Junior

Published Jun 24, 2012

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Cape Town is set to get a new name this week, courtesy of the local Khoisan community – and Nando’s is sponsoring billboards to advertise it.

“We will be putting up the boards for all to see, and if they’re taken down or vandalised, we will not retaliate. Instead, we will just keep replacing them,” Tania Kleinhans, of the Institute for the Restoration of the Aborigines of SA, said during a ceremony at the Castle of Good Hope yesterday.

And the city’s new name?

//Hui !Gaeb, a Khoisan name meaning “where clouds gather”.

Yesterday’s event, which inc-luded a ceremony to honour Oom Dawid Kruiper, the San leader who died on June 13 in an Upington hospital, called for the renaming, saying it was in recognition of the Khoisan history.

On how Nando’s got involved, Kleinhans explained that she approached the company after seeing the fast food chain’s controversial diversity TV ad.

“We love the advert, because it is based on facts. It is not about racism, xenophobia or diversity. It shows that we are the original people of SA,” she said.

Nando’s was quick to offer its support, so from next week expect to see billboards announcing the city’s “new name” on the N2 and outside the Castle in the city centre.

During a wreath-laying ceremony yesterday, about 50 people paid tribute to Kruiper, who died at 71, and the community’s leaders spoke of concern the Khoisan be nationally recognised.

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Weekend Argus

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