The Tshwane metro council has been forbidden to replace the name Pretoria with Tshwane on route and guidance signs pending the outcome of an application to stop the name change.
Pretoria High Court Judge Bill Prinsloo on Tuesday granted an urgent interim interdict to the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and AfriForum, provisionally putting a halt to the council’s plans to replace the name Pretoria with Tshwane across the board.
Prinsloo ordered the minister of provincial and local government to communicate to all provincial and local governments throughout the country that the replacement of route and guidance signs has been temporarily forbidden.
He said there were strong indications that the Tshwane council was planning to change the name Pretoria to Tshwane indiscriminately, which could amount to a chaotic and unfair process and could result in absurdities.
He said the FF+ and AfriForum had made out a prima facie case that deserved the urgent attention of a court of final instance.
They had also proved that they would suffer irreparable harm and had no alternative remedy if an interim interdict was not granted.
The applicants maintained that the council’s plans to use the name Tshwane was based on the wrong interpretation of the law and would lead to irreparable harm to the status of the name Pretoria as an official geographical name and to the cultural heritage of a large portion of South Africans.
Prinsloo said it was clear that the issue of name changes was an emotional one, irrespective of one’s political or cultural background. It had led to marches and heated debate in the press, not only locally, but in several other places in the country.
He pointed out that Pretoria was after all 150 years old and was generally regarded as the administrative capital of South Africa inside the country and overseas.
The judge said it would not have been necessary for the applicants to approach the court urgently if the executive mayor had undertaken not to effect the name change until the matter could be aired in court.
Apart from complaining about the spelling of the mayor’s name, there was, however, no response to demands by the applicants for such an undertaking.
The metro council was ordered to provide the applicants with an implementation plan for the name changes within three days of it being finalised.
The court application was preceded by a protest march outside the court building, with Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr prominent among the protestors.
Hofmeyr said the outcome of the case was a good birthday present, which he would ”celebrate with a German beer on the South African square”.
Meanwhile, the Tshwane metro council on Tuesday remained adamant that the status quo — that the name of the capital is Tshwane — remained in the ongoing saga over the city’s name change.
”The interim relief granted to the FF+ does not have much political significance.
”The court did not rule on the question of the city’s name. It only ruled on the technical matter of whether the current signposts may be removed and replaced with the Tshwane name posts,” the city said. — Sapa