The Chairman’s Association (CA), the official opponent in the name-change saga of Louis Trichardt, this week released a statement in reaction to the Makhado Municipality’s resolution to change the name to Makhado.
On Thursday, 13 November, Makhado Mayor David Mutavhatsindi announced that not only will they fight for the name Makhado, but also to have certain street names in town changed.
This renewed effort by the municipality, the CA has warned, is nothing more than a cunning ploy to pull the wool over residents’ eyes. “The CA is of the opinion that this is an irrational smoke screen to divert the attention of the residents from good service delivery and transparency,” said CA chairperson André Naudé.
He mentioned a few areas and projects where the municipality left residents wanting, such as the town’s looming electricity and sewerage crisis, water delivery, potholes and waste management. Naudé pointed out that the municipality has allowed the electricity network to go to pot, so much so that Eskom is refusing to develop it. In addition, Eskom is also owed more than R60m by the municipality. Promises of a pothole-free town by this December will also not materialise, said Naudé. Furthermore, he added, new developments such as the new landfill site and sewerage works are left incomplete, while their older counterparts have fallen into chaos.
“The mayor and his council’s main purpose is to practice vengeance politics and to create utmost polarization between cultural groups,” said Naudé. He was referring to some of the remarks by Mayor Mutavhatsindi that could be regarded as racially tinted. “It was unacceptable for the mayor to draw a distinction between white and black residents by referring to the blacks as us and the whites as them. Stop polarizing people with vengeance politics from the past; it is not a lesser crime than segregated toilets and is blatant discrimination.”
Being a multi-cultural group, the CA also challenged the mayor to attend their meetings to experience true reconciliation, rather than spout name-change philosophies as the only means to reach reconciliation.
Hence, Naudé said, the CA will continue to fight any attempts to change the historical name of Louis Trichardt when it will be done for no good reason or without compliance with the requirements of the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC).
In keeping with their resolution, the CA served a draft copy of the High Court’s decision (to have the gazette of the town's name set aside) on the municipality on Tuesday. The municipality was warned that if they do not change all references to Makhado Town to Louis Trichardt, or change the four entrance sign boards from Makhado to Louis Trichardt within 30 days, that they would be held in contempt of court.
