Makhanda pensioner Monameli Ndumo (70) has taken Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa to court to challenge the Grahamstown name change to Makhanda. According to a Daily Dispatch report, Ndumo – who co-chairs an organisation called Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown – said the entire process had been fatally flawed.

There had been no proper consultation of the community or stakeholders, the Minister had not informed people of their right to object and, finally, most objections had simply been ignored.

He disputed that the SA Geographical Names Council had ever made a resolution proposing the name change to the Minister as required by law and said the Minister could therefore never have adopted it. He said Mthethwa had also caused confusion by spelling the name Makhanda whereas the municipality, named after the same person, had been spelt Makana. He said this was irrational, likely to cause confusion.

The final nail in the coffin of an entirely flawed process, says Ndumo, was the way the Minister had dealt with over 10 000 objections. He had failed to deal with the substance of each objection and had simply referred them to the Names Council. This was not a task the Minister could legally delegate, he said.

Ndumo has asked the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) to review and set aside the decision. He has also asked the court to order both the Minister and the Names Council to hand over all documentation to do with the decision.

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