MBOMBELA – Residents who woke up in Nelspruit on Thursday morning, went to sleep in Mbombela yesterday night.
The application to have Nelspruit’s name change to Mbombela set aside was denied with costs by Pretoria High Court yesterday. This came months after the warring parties closed their presentations to the court in November.
In 2012 the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT) took the minister of arts and culture to court to restore Nelspruit’s name after it was changed to Mbombela. The change was gazetted, but because the chamber instituted legal proceedings against it, both names were in use pending the judge’s verdict. Now that she has spoken, Nelspruit falls away.
Ms Linda Grimbeek of the KLCBT explained that the grounds the judge cited to reject the application was that the change, were already effected four years ago. “She said you can’t go back on history.”
Grimbeek said the chamber was made aware in the beginning that their delay to institute proceedings would count against them. They decided to proceed, since they believed they had a very strong case.
The case cost them about R700 000, money they raised from the community. Now, they will also have to pay the other parties’ legal costs.
Grimbeek said the chamber would study the verdict before making a decision on whether to appeal against it or not.
They extended a final word of thanks to all the supporters who have donated towards the legal costs of the case, as well as Mr Johan du Preez, their lawyer, for rendering his services free of charge.
At the time of going to print, the executive mayor of Mbombela Local Municipality, Cllr Cathy Dlamini and the spokesman for the municipality, Mr Joseph Ngala, could not be reached for comment as their cellphones were switched to voicemail.
