A Potchefstroom councillor has opened a case of harassment after receiving a barrage of insulting and derogatory text messages following a radio interview on renaming the city.
Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Piet Du Plessis on Wednesday confirmed that a case of harassment had been opened by African National Congress councillor Ina Stoltz. However, he would not provide any details.
Stoltz told the South African Press Association that she received between 20 and 30 text messages on her phone on Monday following a radio interview.
She said the SMSs started less than an hour after she was interviewed over the proposed name change of the city to Tlokwe.
The messages were ”very insulting and intimidating” and included statements that she was a ”traitor” and a ”liar”.
”One said that I won’t be going to heaven,” Stoltz said.
Theo Venter, chairperson of Action Potchefstroom, said he had heard of the insulting SMSs.
”People have reacted in a way that I cannot approve. We don’t play that game,” he said.
Action Potchefstroom, together with AfriForum, on Tuesday announced they had submitted documents to the Bophuthatswana Provincial Division of the High Court in a bid to prevent North West provincial minister of local government and housing Frans Vilakazi from going ahead and changing Potchefstroom’s name.
The two groups also said they were preparing an application to have an order issued declaring the process followed thus far by the Geographic Names Council as invalid, due to a lack of public participation in the renaming process. — Sapa