Major Eastern Cape towns, rivers and airports could have new names in the next few months. If the Eastern Cape geographical names committee has its way, East London will be renamed Monti or Gompo, with Port Elizabeth set to be named after former president Nelson Mandela as Nelson Mandela City.

King William's Town could be known as Qonce, Grahamstown as Rhini, Alice as Dike and Queenstown as Komani or Nonesi.

Rivers will not be spared, including famous ones like Fish River and Kei River - to be known as Nxuba and Nciba respectively.

Both East London and Mthatha airports could carry the names of local struggle icons Mandela and Steve Biko respectively.

The East London suburb Nahoon could be known as Nxarhuni, and popular holiday resorts like Haga Haga and Gulu will be changed to Haka Haka and Gxulu respectively.

"There are 60 names that we identified as the committee and we would like the district geographical names committees to act on those names by taking them to the public for public hearings in their respective districts," committee chairman Fumanekile Dyubele said.

Dyubele said they would would like to see at least 30 percent of the names on the list changed by the end of the year.

"The problem is we know we may want to cover a lot of ground but practicality can prove otherwise.

"We need to give a chance and opportunity to everybody to say something about the issue of changing names."

Dyubele's report also traces the history of all the towns to be renamed.

It said that Queenstown was named in 1853 after Queen Victoria of England, while King William's Town was named in honour of William IV by Sir
Benjamin D'Urban in 1835. Alice was named in 1847 after the second daughter of Queen Victoria .

"Most of these names reflect the conquest that happened during the times of Frontier Wars and others, and therefore the places in which we live today were named after colonial heroes," Dyubele said.

While many supported the name changing process, others felt that some names on the list should stay the same.

Les Holbrook, chief executive of Border-Kei Chamber of Business, said they supported the changing of offensive names but he found nothing wrong with East London, Fish River and East London Airport.

"Where a name is offensive, let's get rid of it - but if you change names, it has massive cost implications." he said.

African National Congress spokesperson Andile Nkuhlu said the renaming of towns was unavoidable as it was part of the transformation of South Africa.

"In doing so, we need to act in a manner that is inclusive. We must hurry slowly. We must not leave people behind."

But Democratic Alliance leader Athol Trollip said: "We have a fundamental problem with the fact that the government seems set to change the names that have colonial origins."

Buffalo City spokesperson Thabo Matiwane said: "We do not want to influence a discussion we have not yet started as that will have a bearing on how BCM council relates with its citizens."

The committee's list of 60 names includes 16 places carrying derogatory names, including those that have prefixes such as "boesman" or "kaffir".

It hopes all changes will be made in the current financial year.