A court bid to set aside art and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa’s decision to change the name of Grahamstown to Makhanda has failed.
Makhanda will remain the official name of the small city.
Judge Murray Lowe on Tuesday found Mthethwa and the provincial and national geographic name change councils had acted in strict accordance with all consultative and other requirements before deciding to change the name.
City resident, Sigidla Ndumo had challenged Mthethwa’s decision to follow the SA Geographic Names’ Council’s (SAGNC) recommendation to rename Grahamstown to Makhanda on the basis that no proper consultative process was followed and that the recommendation made to the minister was therefore improper.
Mthethwa’s decision on the basis of the recommendation was therefore also unreasonable and should be set aside.
Ndumo co-chairs an organisation called Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG).
But Lowe said an adequate consultation process had been followed. He said KGG’s decision not to participate in this process did not render it inadequate.
KGG had participated extensively in an earlier consultative process which ran between 2007 and 2015 which had led to no recommendation or decision being taken.
KGG contended that the minister had not had any regard to this earlier process but only to the single consultative meeting held in 2016 in a second name change process initiated at the time.
Lowe did not agree. He said the earlier process was an entirely separate process which had led to a dead end and the minister was not obliged to have any regard to it. He said there was “clearly adequate/proper consultation” as envisaged by the Names Act in the second process.
Ndumo had also complained that in June 2018, when the minister gazetted the name change, he had failed to inform the public of its right to tender objections within 30 days and that this irregularity impacted his decision.
But, Lowe found it had no real impact on the substance of the decision and no influence on the outcome.
The KGG had in any event lodged their objections and the minister had adequate regard to these objections before confirming his decision.
Lowe also rejected an argument that the minister had made his decision on the basis of the name Grahamstown being offensive when the original complaint leading to the whole process had been on the basis of “historical context”.
“I do not see that the fact that the Minister’s recommendation of the name change justification was that this ‘replaced a name which epitomises brutal colonial subjugation with one that epitomises redress and restoration of human dignity’, is in any way a reviewable irregularity based on offensiveness and not historical reasons as is contended. This is far too narrow a view of what the Minister was obliged to consider.”
Ndumo’s attorney, Brin Brody, said they would analyse the judgment before considering whether to appeal it.
It's official — it's Makhanda forever
Image: File
A court bid to set aside art and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa’s decision to change the name of Grahamstown to Makhanda has failed.
Makhanda will remain the official name of the small city.
Judge Murray Lowe on Tuesday found Mthethwa and the provincial and national geographic name change councils had acted in strict accordance with all consultative and other requirements before deciding to change the name.
City resident, Sigidla Ndumo had challenged Mthethwa’s decision to follow the SA Geographic Names’ Council’s (SAGNC) recommendation to rename Grahamstown to Makhanda on the basis that no proper consultative process was followed and that the recommendation made to the minister was therefore improper.
Mthethwa’s decision on the basis of the recommendation was therefore also unreasonable and should be set aside.
Ndumo co-chairs an organisation called Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG).
But Lowe said an adequate consultation process had been followed. He said KGG’s decision not to participate in this process did not render it inadequate.
KGG had participated extensively in an earlier consultative process which ran between 2007 and 2015 which had led to no recommendation or decision being taken.
KGG contended that the minister had not had any regard to this earlier process but only to the single consultative meeting held in 2016 in a second name change process initiated at the time.
Lowe did not agree. He said the earlier process was an entirely separate process which had led to a dead end and the minister was not obliged to have any regard to it. He said there was “clearly adequate/proper consultation” as envisaged by the Names Act in the second process.
Ndumo had also complained that in June 2018, when the minister gazetted the name change, he had failed to inform the public of its right to tender objections within 30 days and that this irregularity impacted his decision.
But, Lowe found it had no real impact on the substance of the decision and no influence on the outcome.
The KGG had in any event lodged their objections and the minister had adequate regard to these objections before confirming his decision.
Lowe also rejected an argument that the minister had made his decision on the basis of the name Grahamstown being offensive when the original complaint leading to the whole process had been on the basis of “historical context”.
“I do not see that the fact that the Minister’s recommendation of the name change justification was that this ‘replaced a name which epitomises brutal colonial subjugation with one that epitomises redress and restoration of human dignity’, is in any way a reviewable irregularity based on offensiveness and not historical reasons as is contended. This is far too narrow a view of what the Minister was obliged to consider.”
Ndumo’s attorney, Brin Brody, said they would analyse the judgment before considering whether to appeal it.
Makhanda name change bungled and irrational, judge hears
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