Twenty days remain for final comment on the name changes, many of which are simply corrections of spelling mistakes. The airport will be named after African National Congress anti-apartheid stalwart Oliver Tambo, who died in 1993.
Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi told the Mail & Guardian Online on Monday that "an overwhelming number of people" have expressed support for the name change, though he could not give exact figures or say whether any objections had been received.
The department is involved in the name change because the airport is one of its assets, though it is managed by the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa).
Department of Arts and Culture spokesperson Premy Appalraju said the Ekurhuleni metro, Johannesburg metro, South African Airways, Acsa and the Tambo family were consulted on the name change. Though the department had received "some objections from individuals", there was overwhelming approval of the change, she said.
Appalraju could not say what the name change would cost, but said the expenditure would form part of "transformation issues, as requested in the Budget".
"The feeling is that you cannot quantify ... reconciliation in monetary terms," she said, referring to the airport's renaming as "symbolic reparation".
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