He told Members of Parliament that he hoped after consultations with the Ministry of Transport, a formal naming ceremony would be performed to coincide with the birthday of the late leader of the African National Congress, on October 27.

"I am satisfied that every provision of the law had been followed," Mr Jordan told the National Assembly, regarding the proposal by the Ekhurhuleni Metro Council, that the name of the JIA, be changed to the OR Tambo Airport.

Expanding, the minister said the process of changing the name of the continent's biggest and busiest airport began in the Ekhurhuleni council chamber in 2003 and was debated there, with arguments for and against tabled.

Following that and a subsequent testing of public opinion by the relevant local authority, the proposal was then forwarded to the South African Geographical Names Council.

The proposed name change was done in terms of the South African Geographical Names Council Act of 1998, which established the council to advise the minister on the transformation and standardisation of geographical names in South Africa for official purposes.

Mr Jordan said the Act was "passed by Parliament as an act of affirmation; an act to affirm precisely the cultural diversity of South Africa, born of the recognition that in the past, that we all regret but nonetheless have to recognise as part of the South African reality, there had been a conscious effort to deny that diversity through various acts of commission or omission".

Under the legislation, the minister may approve or reject a geographical name recommended by the council.

During colonialism, said the minister, "literally thousands of geographical names were imposed on the country by the colonial powers who ruled South Africa and portions of it over the last three and half centuries".

"They did this without regard to the pre-existing names, let alone the sensibilities of the indigenous people, who in most instances continued to use the original names," said Mr Jordan.

"There are also numerous instances where colonial administrators misheard indigenous names and imposed misconstrued versions of them," he said.

Mr Jordan added that "some places ... were renamed to celebrate the military victories of white settlers over African armies, some to memorialise European kings and queens, some to celebrate colonial governors and soldiers".

In the renaming process, all these factors were taken into account, said the minister, adding that questions involving the diversity of South Africa, the integrity of its languages and the sensibilities of its people were also considered.

Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo was born in 1917 in Mbizana in eastern Pondoland, in the northern region of what is now known as the Eastern Cape.

Along with former president Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, he was a founding member of the ANC Youth League in 1943 and led a programme of boycotts, civil disobedience, strikes and non-collaboration with the colonial rulers.

He became Secretary General of the ANC in 1995 and deputy president in 1958, and, after a banning order issued by the apartheid government, went abroad to mobilise opposition to the apartheid system.

In 1985, at the height of the struggle against apartheid, Mr Tambo was elected president of the ANC.

He returned to South Africa in 1991 after spending more than 30 years in exile, and died from a stroke in April 1993, a year before South Africa's first-ever democratic elections.