Street name saga to return to court
The Tshwane metro will appeal a decision ordering it to dually display old and new street names in the city.
The Tshwane metro will once again appeal to a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal against a court order issued today that all the changed street names must be displayed with the new names in the entire metro.
The civil rights organisation AfriForum on Tuesday won a court case against the municipality, with a full bench of three judges ordering the metro to again dually display both the old and new street names of the metro’s principal streets and main roads.
This, AfriForum said, had to be done before 1 August this year.
Reacting to the Pretoria High Court ruling, the metro regretted the High Court in Pretoria’s dismissal of its appeal against the initial ruling by Judge Bill Prinsloo in April last year, awarding an interdict in favour of AfriForum against implementation of a 2012 council decision on the removal of old street name signage in the city.
Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said: “We believe that the practice and period during which the old names were displayed dually with the newly-agreed names of Tshwane’s principal streets and main roads was reasonable enough to afford all stakeholders the opportunity to lodge objections, request for a review, and among others to update their business and marketing information as necessary.”
He said Tuesday’s ruling would not pass the test of constitutionality as it curtailed the administrative functions of the municipality.
“The ruling also trampled the separation of powers as it has practically interdicted the city administration from implementing the new name changes and insisted on the display of a dual name plate signage for an unspecified period simply to satisfy the colonialist egos and apartheid nostalgia of AfriForum,” said the mayor.
“We have decided that we will once again appeal to a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal on the matter with a belief that the city will be provided an opportunity to present its case.”
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