Pretoria - The Pretoria name-change saga took a new turn on Thursday with an announcement by Tshwane executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa that fresh public participation meetings would be held.
Ramokgopa told the monthly council meeting that records of last year’s public participation process were not kept.
But civil rights initiative AfriForum described Ramokgopa’s announcement as “simply like a boxer who loses a match on a first-round knock-out and then asks for rematch”.
“We know that the executive mayor’s statement is not correct,” said AfriForum’s chief executive, Kallie Kriel.
Ramokgopa said all the relevant documents regarding the public participation process on the proposed name change had been submitted to Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile.
“Public participation meetings did take place. We have learnt that proper records of the proceedings were not kept. We are redoing that process,” he said.
Ramokgopa said city manager Jason Ngobeni had been asked to investigate the matter and “to ensure that this embarrassment does not occur again”.
He also touched on the street names saga, saying that the council would go ahead with its appeal on the issue, “because in the end we are going to win”.
“We cannot allow a situation where African names are relegated to the townships. The current names reflect the country’s diversity,” he said.
Kriel said Ramokgopa’s announcement on the Pretoria/Tshwane saga was nothing more than a political game.
“There was a public participation process and indications are that the majority of people want the name Pretoria retained,” he said.
“The ANC is now playing political tricks.”
Kriel said the latest developments were an indication that the public participation meetings held in 2011 were just a rubber stamp.
According to Kriel, AfriForum had been told that 81 percent of those who took part in the public participation process undertaken in 2011 supported the retention of Pretoria’s name.
The organisation submitted 4 310 written objections to the municipality in 2011 after claiming that the public meetings were “a failed attempt by the metro council to rectify the mistakes made since the inception of the name-change process”.
Kriel added that the overwhelming support for Pretoria’s name indicated that efforts to change it “are driven by a small group of political ideologists who promote their own agendas at the cost of public opinion”.
He has previously stated that the support for the retention of the name was especially noteworthy “if one takes into account the attempts by the council to manipulate the public participation process to inflate support” for the proposed name change.
The fight began in 2003, when the council approved the name change from Pretoria to Tshwane. Then-ANC councillor Pat Blaauw had submitted a motion to mandate then-municipal manager Blake Mosley-Lefatola to register the name “Tshwane” with the SA Geographical Names Committee.
There have also been a number of court cases and public spats.
The Freedom Front Plus - with the backing of AfriForum and to a certain extent the DA - challenged the council’s plans to change the city’s name. During one of several heated discussions, a group headed by Dr Dan Roodt was ejected from the council’s meeting in January 2005 after disrupting proceedings.
The ANC wants to change the name to Tshwane, while others want to retain the name Pretoria for the city and Tshwane for the municipality. At one time there was a suggestion that Pretoria be retained only for the CBD, which would mean South Africa’s capital would become Tshwane.
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