Eden District Municipality to change its name | Infrastructure news

Eden district municipality logoThe Eden District Municipal council has approved the proposed name change from Eden District Municipality to Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM).

Eden DM Executive Mayor Memory Booysen says the reason behind the name change is for alignment between the regional tourism brand and the municipality.

“The Regional Tourism brand will still be known as Garden Route and Klein Karoo and will continue to be marketed in that way. By changing our name to Garden Route District Municipality does not mean that we see less value in the name Klein Karoo, we see the Klein Karoo as part of the Garden Route. When looking at the name “Eden”, it never included the name “Klein Karoo”, but people were still aware of it,” she explains.

Eden DM speaker Mark Willemse adds “The name Eden is not familiar to people outside the region and it also did not add any value to tourism in the region – it only created confusion.

“If a person does a Google search for the word “Eden”, it does not even mention anything about the Garden Route or Klein Karoo, but once a person searches for the phrase “Garden Route”, the words “Klein Karoo” ends up with the search results of Garden Route.”

Public participation

The public participation and awareness process included public participation sessions with all municipalities as well as communications via printed media, broadcast media and social media.

Municipal Councils in favour of the proposed name change include Eden, Mossel Bay, Hessequa, George, Bitou and Knysna while Oudtshoorn and Kannaland were opposed to the proposed name change.

The next step of the name change will be to inform the Western Cape Government, MEC for Local Government, Anton Bredell, of Council’s decision and request to publish a notice about the name change in the Government Gazette.

The Communication and Graphic Design Section of the municipality will design the GRDM logo and a brand guide to ensure that the organisation transitions smoothly into a new identity.

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