Changing Grahamstown’s name to Makhanda has been a comedy of errors, says a civil society organisation, warning that arts and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa may have to pay the cost of the resulting litigation out of his own pocket.
If Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG) has its way, the minister and his officials will have to foot the bill arising from the serial blunders it says have been committed during the process, which has been drawn out over a decade.
The long list of defects, say KGG’s joint co-ordinators, Jock McConnachie and Sigidla Ndumo, started with the public consultation process which did not follow legal requirements.
The government notice issued in June regarding the proposed name change had also been problematic.
It had failed, as required by law, to inform people of their right to object to the proposed name change, McConnachie and Ndumo said.
“It gave the impression that the effect of publication of the notice was that the name of Grahamstown was already changed to Makhanda.”
By law, the city would remain Grahamstown until all objections had been lodged and considered.
They said the minister had not responded to a single one of thousands of objections.
The KGG had itself submitted a comprehensive list of objections on behalf of more than 10,000 people.
“The minister must consider every objection and provide reasons for accepting or rejecting them and has so far only acknowledged receipt of 332, which means thousands of objections are not accounted for.”
They say Mthethwa compounded all these irregularities with his recent statement that he intended formally announcing on Heritage Day that the name of Grahamstown had been changed to Makhanda ka Nxele rather than just Makhanda.
“Makhanda ka Nxele is not the name as gazetted in the notice and has therefore never been formally proposed as required by law.”
The KGG has given notice that due to the many irregularities relating to the process, including the defective notice, it intends launching a court challenge.
Mthethwa has indicated that he considered the process to have been entirely in line with legislation.