I know this is a very old thread, but I thought this might still be useful to someone. It works as of Legion (7.3.5). I got it out of the SpartanUI lua:
Code:
MinimapZoneText:Hide();
Minimap.ZoneText = Minimap:CreateFontString(nil,"OVERLAY","SUI_Font10");
MinimapZoneText:ClearAllPoints();
MinimapZoneText:SetAllPoints(Minimap.ZoneText);
MinimapZoneTextButton:ClearAllPoints();
MinimapZoneTextButton:SetAllPoints(Minimap.ZoneText);