2006 Tutu Fellow Palesa Kadi has been appointed as Chairperson of the South African Geographical Names Council at the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. The South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC) is the body that receives recommendations from provincial names committees and advises the government on new geographical names as well as the changing of existing geographical names.
Changing some of the country's many colonial or apartheid-legacy names formed part of a call made by the arts and culture minister in 2021 for an audit of offensive names and also to write black people into South Africa's history.
Palesa comes to the role well-armed: her Ph.D is in Planning and Architecture at Wits University and she is also no stranger to taking on difficult roles. Previously, she was appointed to chair the hearings for ICASA on sports broadcasting rights.
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