The new names are:
•Claude Qavane (Xanadu)
•Sarah Baartman (Melodi)
•Solomon Mahlangu (Unitas)
•Lilian Ngoyi (Veritas)
•Hector Pieterson (Letaba)
•Charlotte Maxeke (Lebombo)
•Sol Plaatje (SV Protea Residence)
•Yolanda Guma (Oceana)
Families, friends, guests and university staff and students attended the launch in the Indoor Sports Centre on Monday, 27 May.
Two other Port Elizabeth residences in the Sanlam Student Village on South Campus have retained their original names of Indwe and Ikamva.
The transformative process to name and rename spaces and places in line with the ethos of Mandela is ongoing with the focus now on George Campus and faculty-specific buildings.
The institutional Naming and Renaming Project is a critical part of the University’s transformation and identity building process and flows from the launch of the University’s new name and identity in 2017.
The University name change provided an enabling environment and an opportunity to pro-actively build social cohesion and contribute to the transformation and decolonising project at the University.
It also presented an ideal opportunity for revisiting the names of physical infrastructure – existing buildings, streets, campuses and other named features and components of the University – which are all important parts of the institution.
The University’s Arts, Culture and Heritage director, Michael Barry, says a university named after a person like Rholihlahla Nelson Mandela should also consist of buildings that carry names that resemble what he and leaders of his ilk stood for.
“Buildings are an important aspect of a university. It is where teaching and learning content is produced and where the institutional culture gets its legitimacy to navigate the movement and thinking of human beings interacting with it daily. Therefore, such property cannot carry empty names like “Building 35, Xanadu” which possess nothing significant about the context of Nelson Mandela and the general climate of higher education in South Africa in the present,” he says.
“The Naming and Renaming project will ensure that all our University spaces and places recognise, respect and honour all people and our country’s rich heritage in ways that resonate with our values and the Mandela ethos. Place names contribute to forging of identity and a sense of ownership and belonging.”
The naming and renaming process – anticipated to run for the next few years and across all University campuses – further affords the institution an opportunity to build and enhance the intellectual identity and brand of Nelson Mandela University, and is launched within, and as part of, the institution’s year-long Centenary Celebrations programme.
Given the magnitude of the project, the University will be rolling it out in phases, following a precinct approach that will see a consultative process to seek mutual agreement on appropriate names for places and spaces.