The Tshwane Metropolitan Council followed due process in registering the name Tshwane with the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC), the body said on Tuesday.
”The Tshwane metro followed correct and legal procedures in registering the name Tshwane with the SAGNC,” said SAGNC chairperson Tommy Ntsewa.
Ntsewa said the Tshwane metro conducted the application by the book, contrary to a statement by Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, who said the council’s actions were ”an explicit violation of the South African Geographical Names Council’s own rules on geographical name changes”.
A report by academics commissioned by Tshwane mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa to investigate the process of changing the name Pretoria to Tshwane estimated the exercise would cost R1,5-billion.
Mayoral spokesperson William Baloyi last month said the actual figure will be less than R150 000 and has already been budgeted for by the council.
The council in March voted to retain the name Pretoria for the city centre and use the name Tshwane for the greater metropolitan area.
Ntsewa said the SAGNC received an application in March from the Tshwane metro to register the new name and is to meet on May 19 and 20 to consider the application.
”The application will only be turned down if the name Tshwane is found to be offensive or vulgar or if it is found to be a duplication of another city’s name in the country,” Ntsewa said.
He stressed the SAGNC is not considering the merits of changing the name of Pretoria to Tshwane but rather the formal registration of Tshwane as a place name.
”The area has been known as Tshwane for five years at this point and appears on the databases of the Department of Provincial and Local Government. Those opposed to the name change itself should have made their objections known in 2000 when the Demarcation Board established the area as Tshwane,” he said.
If the name is approved by the SAGNC, a recommendation will be made to Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan, who will render a decision within two weeks, Ntsewa said.
Formal approval and registration of the name will entail it being used instead of Pretoria in news bulletins, weather broadcasts, road maps and all official documents.
SABC not wrong in using ‘Tshwane’
The DA on Monday laid a complaint with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) for the improper use of the name Tshwane for Pretoria by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
Leon, in a speech prepared for the DA provincial congress in Pretoria, said the SABC has pre-empted the name-change decision by the SAGNC.
”This matter was originally brought to the BCCSA by a member of the public,” said SABC spokesperson Paul Setsetse.
Setsetse said the BCCSA found the SABC has done nothing wrong by referring to the area as Tshwane in its bulletins.
”The BCCSA agreed that the use of the name Tshwane was not in any way improper. The city’s metro council had voted to use the name and thus the SABC saw fit to use it as well. The DA’s argument doesn’t hold any water,” he said.
He said the SABC does not dictate to its journalists to call areas by certain names, but that, from a professional point of view, journalists will call cities by their official names.
Setsetse said many SABC listeners and viewers know Pretoria as Tshwane in much the same way many know Durban as eThekwini.
”These names have been in use for a long time. We really don’t understand what all this noise is about,” he said. — Sapa