The Makhado Municipality continues to defy a court order openly by still referring to Louis Trichardt as Makhado or Makhado Town in its official documents. The South African Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) is, after more than a year, also still delinquent on its undertaking to correct the existing illicit Makhado road signage.

The chairperson of Soutpansberg Rate Payers Association (SRPA), Mr Herman Smith, expressed his dissatisfaction with the municipality and SANRAL in a media statement this week, due to their apparent refusal to adhere to the judgement in case 25/2006 of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa (SCA). He said in any democratic country such blatant defiance of a judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeal would not be tolerated.

In the case referred to as The Chairperson’s Association vs Minister of Arts and Culture (2007), SCA 44 (RSA) gave judgement in the application from the Chairperson’s Association (CPA) to appeal against a decision of Judge J Legodi in the Pretoria High Court in which he dismissed the application from the CPA for an order reviewing and setting aside the decision of the Minister of Arts and Culture’s approving the change of the name of the town Louis Trichardt to Makhado.

Mr Smith said the Makhado Municipality in its official documents, such as the 2008/9 IDP document and the 2008/9 Budget, continues to defy the court order openly by still referring to Louis Trichardt as Makhado or Makhado Town.

"SANRAL joins in this defiance by continuing to put up road signs along the N1 with the name of Makhado," Smith says. One of these illicit Makhado road signs is prominently displayed by SANRAL, right at the Baobab Toll Plaza.

In the media statement, Smith says: "The Makhado Municipality, as a sphere of government, and SANRAL blatantly defy the judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeal and therefore also defy the Constitution of South Africa. The question can be asked whether any of these structures then deserves to be part of the constitutional landscape of a democratic South Africa."

Smith said it was up to civil society to force such delinquent structures to comply. If civil society refuses to take part in the struggle to develop and implement the provisions of the Constitution, people should not complain if the same human rights violations which are now happening in Zimbabwe also happen in South Africa.

He invited all civil organizations to take part actively in the protection of democracy in South Africa.