The Chairpersons Association formally objected to the recommendation of the Makhado Municipality to change the name of the town Louis Trichardt to Makhado. The municipality sent its proposal to change the name to the Limpopo Provincial Geographic Names Council after an approval by Council on November 26 last year.

The CA delivered its nine-page objection ,dated January 7, with supporting documentation, to the same names council.

"There is no justification for the name change from Louis Trichardt to Makhado ... the Municipality has embarked on a name-change procedure without any policy in place," the CA says.

The CA won the Appeal Court Case when it was ruled in March last year that the name Makhado should be set aside, due to improper consultation.

The Makhado Municipality started with a renaming process in August last year and concluded the process in October. The municipal name change committee, under leadership of Cllr TJ Mudau, recommended that an application be made to the Minister of Arts and Culture, through the Limpopo Geographical Names Council, "for the name change of Louis Trichardt town to Makhado town". They also recommended that "in the event that the name Makhado is found to be undesirable for any reason whatsoever, that the name … be changed to Tshirululuni town."

The CA, representing some 90 000 members, opposed the renaming process from the onset.

"The municipality should firstly have consulted all relevant people and stakeholders in respect of whether there was a need to change the name of Louis Trichardt. That is in terms of the guidelines given by the National Geographical Names Council as approved by the Appelate Division. This was not done. The consultation process on what the name should be, ‘defectively’ followed," the CA Chairperson, Mr André Naudé said. "It is clear from the feedback from the wards that a draconic process, flawed with administrative injustice, had been followed."

In its objection, the CA also submitted that:

*The so-called consultation process was a one-sided, manipulated and instructing process where the views of the public were not considered;

*The Council has prematurely already decided to change the name to Makhado;

*The same mistakes that were made during the previous attempt to change the name of Louis Trichardt to Makhado have been repeated and even more grossly unjust mistakes have been made;

* The Council and the names committee did not apply their minds properly to this matter and if so, indeed in a male fide manner;

* The appointment of the members of the names committee was a totally manipulated process. There was no representative of the CA, an important stakeholder, appointed on the committee;

* Letters from the CA to the naming committee received no response;

*The name Louis Trichardt meets the policies and principles of the SAGNC. Louis Trichardt was an anti-imperialist and a peacemaker and Louis Trichardt as a name is not insulting;

*There is a Makhado at Dzanani as well as a Makhado in Zimbabwe. A third Makhado will be totally confusing;

* The re-naming of Louis Trichardt to Makhado is polarizing the Afrikaans- and English-speaking people against the Venda people, the Buysdorp people against the Venda people, the Indian Community against the Venda people and the Shangaan people against the Venda people and it is not adding value to reconciliation;

* The CA regards the only reason for the municipality to change the name as collective racial discrimination as well as vengeance and therefore the process should be stopped immediately as it is deeply dividing.

The report of the name change committee states that 15 608 individuals participated in the consultative process and the support for the name Makhado is given as 14 522.

The CA said that "a voting system which is not a requirement here cannot replace a proper, administratively-just consultation process."