List of placename renaming in South Africa

Since 1994, there have been a large number of places in South Africa which have been renamed for political, ethnic, or even economic reasons. These name changes were at first to remove politically motivated, incorrectly spelt or offensive names (such as those named after apartheid leaders) from the South African landscape. However, since 2000 these name changes have targeted places of mostly Afrikaans but also English-speaking origin, with many places now named after anti-apartheid activists. The following article covers the name changes in South Africa by province since the first multi-racial elections in 1994.

It should also be noted, however, that a number of places in South Africa had been renamed before 1994. These name changes were much rarer and occurred over long periods time.

As of March 2014, the Eastern Cape has changed the name of 134 places, placing it third nationally after Mpumalanga and the Limpopo provinces. Most name changes have been correcting misspellings in the former homelands of Transkei and Ciskei (see below). There have also been a number of name change proposals in the western half of the province for places of Afrikaans or English origin.

The Free State has only experienced minor name changes. A number of settlements have been slated for renaming but none have thus far gone ahead. Bloemfontein, the provincial capital, is planned to be renamed Mangaung after the township it borders and the municipality it lies in.

The province recently renamed its only international airport in Bloemfontein after anti-apartheid activist Bram Fischer. The airport's name had to be changed twice after the first renaming forgot to add international to the name.

Gauteng, South Africa's most urbanised province, has seen a number of name changes. Probably the most controversial name change in South African history has been that of Pretoria, where there have been proposals to change the city's name to Tshwane (already the name of the metro it lies in).

In 2007 the Johannesburg Development Agency changed two streetnames named after Apartheid era ministers:

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