Talk:Witbank

Any proof?

Is there any proof it's name has been changed?? like a reference???--Bezuidenhout (talk) 16:01, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually the name has not changed. Emalahleni is the local municipality (there is also another by the same name in the Eastern Cape) that includes Witbank, Kries, Ogies and surrounding areas. [1]. The town is still called Witbank. You may search the official database at [2] for confirmation. --NJR ZA (talk) 17:20, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

This is incorrect. I found a reference to the renaming on the official database [3]. The name was changed officially on 3 March 2006. Many road signs and all phone books already contain the new name. Park3r (talk) 14:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

The website sagns is a strange website, it is simply just a long, often confusing list of name changes, without any words or wording. I also typed in Emalahleni, and ALL websites referred to the municipality, one was even about Emalahleni castle, where it said 'Emalahleni is located in Witbank, South Africa'. I seriously think this could be like another Naboomspruit, where it hasn't really caught on.Bezuidenhout (talk) 18:31, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

Name (again)

All road signs now say 'eMalahleni' and I was wondering if maybe a move is in order. The problem with Witbank however is that media still use Witbank, for example the BBC has zero reference to eMalahleni but plenty (including one from 3 days ago) referring to Witbank as Witbank. I don't know if a move is in order just yet, what is media in South Africa calling it? Bezuidenhout (talk) 19:05, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Also, although the road signs say eMalahleni, one cannot get that on wikipedia as the article comes up as EMalahleni. Bezuidenhout (talk) 19:08, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

Seems Google Maps refer to it now as eMalahleni. Looks like its catching on in the media. --197.168.177.193 (talk) 09:28, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

The new name is now more firmly established in the media. Also see Twitter usage. On the other hand spoken English (at least when I've heard it) still seems to favour "Witbank". Overall, I would suggest that a move is in order. Park3r (talk) 09:59, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

You have a point, it does seem to have caught on more, especially more than any other Mpumalanga name changes! But the media still use Witbank sometimes, just yesterday news24 and News24 uses only Witbank (except 2 occasions where it used eMalahleni (Witbank) to refer to the town). I have made a list to show the main media usage of the name:

• News24 - uses only Witbank, except twice when it has referred to the town as "eMalahleni (Witbank)".
• Beeld - very confusingly uses them interchangably (this article from October 2011 refers to the town in the title as Witbank, but in the actual article as "eMalahleni (Witbank)". Overall though Beeld's most recent articles refer to it as "eMalahleni (Witbank)" with only one article calling it solely "eMalahleni".
• SABC - Still regular usage of Witbank (as recently as October)
• iafrica - seems mixed, recent articles from October still show sole use of Witbank but also many articles now also don't even mention Witbank anymore.#

The problem with eMalahleni is that it's so much different from Witbank and with the lower case e and the difficult spelling makes it a bit unpopular, I feel, well more difficult than, say Polokwane, Musina, Bela-Bela, (I)Dutywa or B(h)isho. In August when I went to SA, I saw that on the journey from Pretoria to Witbank, the signs read eMalahleni, while westbound (back to Pretoria) they still all said Witbank? Bezuidenhout (talk) 11:06, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Revert?

Can someone please revert the unexplained language changes made to the article? Someone edited the language section citing that only 5% spoke Afrikaans even though the entire municipality 13% spoke it? Thank you Bezuidenhout (talk) 23:09, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

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Requested move 6 May 2017

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved At the very least, this is a reversal of an undiscussed move, for which there is support. If someone wants to propose the other name, they are free to discuss it in a new RM.(non-admin closure) TonyBallioni (talk) 15:28, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

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EMalahleni → Witbank – The WP:COMMONNAME is Witbank, overwhelmingly, see this link. The article was moved unilaterally on 8 November 2016‎ without discussion owing to the official status of EMalahleni, which according to policy is not a factor in determining article titles. eh bien mon prince (talk) 10:52, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Support. As is the case with City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, which is centered around the city of Pretoria with surrounding localities included in the local government area, eMalahleni refers to the city of Witbank as well as other localities in the surrounding metropolitan area. - André Kritzinger (talk) 22:05, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

For the record, the comment above is factually incorrect. The town of Witbank was renamed eMahlaleni. Pretoria has not been renamed to Tshwane. While I agree that WP:COMMONNAME should be the controlling factor here, in the event that a move is proposed again back to eMahlaleni, the argument that eMahlaleni refers only to the municipality is spurious.Park3r (talk) 10:56, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 4 January 2022

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Not moved (non-admin closure) (t · c) buidhe 21:57, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

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Witbank → Emalahleni – Witbank was renamed in 2006 and reliable sources use the new name. The old name appears to be used mainly by the Afrikaner population within the town who run their own news site.

But most other sources use Emalahleni. Including academic sources, the official government website and other news sites.

https://www.enca.com/news/anc-mourns-emalahleni-mayor

https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/anc-in-mpumalanga-saddened-by-passing-of-emalahleni-mayor/

References

– Desertambition (talk) 02:23, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

• Oppose per ngrams and recent news results (Witbank and Emalahleni - note that most results for Emalahleni refers to the local municipality rather than the town, including apparently the news results provided by the nominator, as the mayor referred to was the mayor of Emalahleni Local Municipality, Mpumalanga). I also note that if there is a consensus for the move, it should be to Emalahleni rather than Emalahleni, Mpumulanga, as Emalahleni is currently a redirect to this location, though I do wonder, based on the recent news results, if it should be a disambiguation page, linking this page as well as the two local municipalities, as it appears there is no primary topic for that name. BilledMammal (talk) 02:44, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
  • Again, google search results and ngrams are not good evidence in response to consistent, reliable sources. Please provide better sources. The point about disambiguating is interesting. Would be in favor of either one as the distinction could potentially cause confusion in the future. Desertambition (talk) 02:58, 4 January 2022 (UTC)
• Comment Emalahleni has been a primary redirect to this article since 2013 and would appear to be unambiguous. 162 etc. (talk) 08:59, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
  • Good point. I have changed the suggestion to Emalahleni. Disambiguation has been removed To editor 162 etc.: Desertambition (talk) 22:21, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. Google News searches produced Witbank 44,000 results, Emalahleni 20,500 results.-- Toddy1 (talk) 16:21, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.