Appeal allowed against process of renaming Grahamstown

Makhanda resident Sigidla Ndumo has been granted leave to appeal the high court judgment which effectively condoned the renaming of Grahamstown to Makhanda.

Judge Murray Lowe last year ruled that arts & culture minister Nathi 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.

Lowe’s ruling meant that the city’s name had been legally and correctly changed to Makhanda.

Mthethwa’s announcement of the name change caused enormous public upset among some sectors of the community, particularly as it was taken just months before the bicentennial of the arrival of the 1820 settlers in the region.

Others at the time said it made little sense to go to the expense of renaming the city instead of using funds for the more important task of fixing its decaying infrastructure and improving administrative and political governance.

But Mthethwa said the new name allowed the replacement of a name which epitomised brutal colonial subjugation with one that epitomised redress and restoration of human dignity.

In granting leave to appeal, Lowe said he was not entirely convinced there was any reasonable prospect that another court would come to a different conclusion to him, but the matter was important and in the public interest.

Ndumo, who co-chairs an organisation called Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG) 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 had been followed. He said if the proper procedure was not followed the recommendation made to the minister was improper.

Mthethwa’s decision on the basis of the improper recommendation was therefore also unreasonable and should be set aside.

The matter will now be decided by a full bench of the Eastern Cape high court division.