The four buildings in White River which were earmarked for name change by Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) will remain the same. These were the civic hall, public library, sport complex and cemetery.

Ms Trudie Grové Morgan of the DA and Mr Themba Mona, secretary of Local Geographical Name Change MLM met with the White River community on Friday night to discuss the name changes.

The purpose of the meeting was to inform the community about the four facilities that would be renamed should they agree. The reason for the renaming of buildings was purely because of therepeat of the word “White River” in so many names. Mona said it would mean that any name could be given to a building, for instance White River Sport Complex could be changed to The Tom Lawrence Sport Complex. Members of the community gave their opinion during the meeting. Ms Leoni da Costa, Ms Maria Pienaar and Mr Willem Botha agreed that names should remain as they are.

Botha also suggested that maintaining buildings should be prioritised instead of spending the ratepayer’s money on name changing. The rest of the citizens agreed that names should stay thesame. Ms Maureen Bourne and her husband Herb, did an interesting presentation about the town and how it was discovered.

They added information in connection with the neglect of the cemetery, clinic and the old children’s clinic and displayed some photos. Historical information was a part of their presentation and monuments in White River such as St George’s Anglican Church was built in 1929 and consecrated on June 7, 1931 by the Lord Bishop of Pretoria. In front of Steers/Debonairs/Fishaways takeaways is a fig tree that was planted by an Anglican minister between 1885 and 1895. It is now a historical monument. A house which was the vicarage was built near the tree between 1895 and 1905 and is said to be the oldest house in White River.

It was either given or sold to the NG Kerk and became die Pastorie. After the South African Boer War, Lord Milner (1854-1925), High Commissioner for South Africa, tried to find a suitable area to establish a settlement that would have fertile soil, sufficient water and a healthy climate. White River valley fulfilled all these requirements and according to experts in agriculture, the area was suitable for farming, especially citrus. An amount of £60 000 was approved for the scheme, which became known as the Milner Settlement. A canal, 25 kilometres long, was laid from the White River and on the banks of the river a few 100-acre farms were surveyed. The town was established on the farm White River. This consisted of a police station, school, and a home for the manager of the scheme namely, Mr Tom Lawrence.

The second main road through the town was named after Tom Lawrence, the first manager of the state funded agricultural settlement after the Anglo-Boer War. He was appointed as the agricultural extension officer and manager of the scheme. In March 1905 the farmers established the White River Farmers’ Association with Lawrence as chairman.