The "hideous" and "untransparent" process of changing the name of Louis Trichardt should be terminated immediately and the process should start afresh, warned the Chairperson’s Association this week.

The consultation phase of the name change committee of the Makhado Municipality ended on October 14.

The Chairpersons Association issued a stern warning in a letter to councillor TJ Mudau, chairperson of the municipality’s name change committee.

"We are going to challenge this process, which is doing an injustice to the people of this region, in court, if you do not comply with our requirement as we have threatened the mayor herein," the letter states. The six letters to the mayor, with dates ranging from May 4 to August 15, have remained unanswered and were attached once again.

The CA minced no words concerning the process followed by Mudau’s committee.

"It is clear from your personal address to certain wards that you have manipulated the people attending these ward meetings to vote for the name Makhado. You have manipulated the people on a racial basis and on a discriminatory basis against the whites of South Africa and especially in this region to vote against the name Louis Trichardt for the name Makhado."

The letter also mentioned busloads of people transported to the "vote" at the meetings and said that many people had been transported from one meeting to the next in order to manipulate the process. During the voting process, it was not established whether the people who voted resided in the wards where the votes had been called for.

Two other indications of manipulation were given in the letter.

"Firstly, the CA had been deliberately excluded from the name change committee and secondly, you called for a vote in respect of what the new name should be without establishing whether there is a need to change the name."

Councillors were again warned that the CA´s latest letter would definitely be used in court against the name council, the individual members as well as the councillors of the region. In previous letters it was spelled out that councillors would be held accountable for court costs in their personal capacity.

The CA insisted that Cllr Mudau respond to the letters attached and to all the questions in detail and word for word "without leaving out any answer to any question, which is a prerequisite in order for you to consult properly." A previous set of 32 questions was attached again.

Besides the detailed answers to questions, the CA insisted on receiving the documentation, including the minutes, of the special Council meeting in April 2007 when it was resolved by Council that the name should change as well as the minutes of the EXCO meeting on the same day. Furthermore, they insist on receiving the attendance registers as well as the minutes of the meetings in the 37 wards. At the time of going to press, the CA had not yet received a response to their letter.