A rebellion over the renaming of the historic country town of Graaff-Reinet has exposed deep-rooted fractures in South Africa as it grapples with its tormented history. In a government decree published recently, the nearly 250-year-old town of whitewashed Cape Dutch houses and red flamboyant trees was renamed after anti-apartheid icon Robert Sobukwe, born here and buried here. In the case of this normally calm oasis, deep in the semi-desert Karoo and about 650 kilometres (400 miles) from Cape Town, the renaming has sown discord among its population of 25,000, leading to protests, petitions and legal threats. “The renaming is taking us back,” he said, clutching stacks of objection forms, around 22,000 of which have already been delivered to the government. “I am not surprised by the opposition of a specific segment of the population who does not want to embrace change,” his grandson, Mangaliso Tsepo Sobukwe, told AFP.

Source: Punch March 20, 2026 10:08 UTC