The fight to decide what the town's name will be in the foreseeable future is once again heading for the court rooms.

Following the second name change of the town Louis Trichardt to Makhado, the Chairpersons Association (CA) received a unanimous vote from its members to take the decision of the Minister of Arts and Culture on review to court.

At the CA meeting on June 6 in the church hall of the Soutpansberg Dutch Reformed Church, members of the large contingent of the Hlanganani Concerned Group were very vocal in their rejection of the procedures that were followed prior to the name change. Mr Donald Mlati said that, at the time, they had persuaded the Shangaans not to set alight the bus that the Makhado Municipality had used to transport people from outside to Waterval to “vote for the name change.”

Mr Robert Khoza, Hlanganani chairperson, said in an interview after the meeting that the name change had been forced down their throats.

Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile was satisfied that “according to documents submitted all consultative processes were followed and all points of view that emerged during consultation and Council meetings were also reflected and submitted…” as stated by his letter of dismissal of objections dated 10 May 2012.

Both the name change and the Minister’s dismissal of the CA’s objections will be taken to court on review. Minister Mashatile gazetted the name change on 14 October last year. The CA will first take the matters on review to the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria and, if necessary, to the Appeal Court or even the Constitutional Court.

The purpose of the CA and its appointed attorneys and advocate, Adv Denny du Preez, is to have the name change set aside. In the first round of the name change from Louis Trichardt to Makhado, the struggle started in 2003 and the name change was set aside by a panel of Appeal Court judges in 2007, whereafter the Makhado Municipality restarted the process.

Part of the CA resolution states that the meeting has mandated the CA Exco to cite as respondents any applicable organ of state, including the Makhado Municipality, the Regional Geographical Names Council as well as the National Geographical Names Council.

The appointed attorneys and advocate will work on a contingency basis, and if they succeed in their case, they will recover their costs from any of the respondents against whom the court may make a decision to pay the costs.

The previous name change case cost the State approximately R500 000 in taxed costs.

The members of the general meeting of the CA understood that "if their legal team is not successful in the review application, the court may make a cost order against the CA and that they will be responsible for payment of the costs of the successful respondent as may be made by court order if applicable”.

The CA's secretary, Ms Inga Gilfillan, said that the constitution of the CA limited financial responsibility in such a case to R1 per member. The CA directly and indirectly represents about 90 0000 members. Gilfillan said that they already had donations pledged if necessary.

The CA Chairperson, Mr André Naudé, said that he was not surprised by the unanimous decision of the general meeting to take the matter to court on review. “People are definitely more interested this time round. We had 2 000 more signatures on our petition lists. At the meeting, the synergy between cultural groups was demonstrated,” Naudé said.

Nearly half of the attendees came from the Shangaan cultural group. Naudé said that some of the large organisations in town sent mainly their chairpersons to represent them.