Court chided for intrusion on place names issue

The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of the City of Tshwane in its drive to remove 25 apartheid-era street names in Pretoria, and replace them with those who fought for the liberation of the city, says a BDlive report. The court upheld an appeal by the city against an interim order granted by the High Court in 2013, which restrained the municipality from removing street and road signs bearing the old names of streets, pending a review application by AfriForum. In 2013‚ Judge Bill Prinsloo also ordered the city to restore and replace signs bearing the old names within two months. The Constitutional Court set aside Prinsloo’s judgment and said an interim interdict should not have been granted in this case. In a majority judgment‚ Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said having solicited a diversity of views‚ including those of AfriForum and other residents‚ the council had resolved – as it was empowered to do – to replace the identified old street names. ‘Intrusion into the sphere of operation reserved only for the other arms of state is an exercise not to be unreflectingly or over-zealously carried out by a court of law‚’ Mogoeng said. Mogoeng said the sum total of AfriForum’s case was the harm it was exposed to by the gradual loss of place or sense of belonging. ‘The sense of place and sense of belonging contended for by AfriForum is highly insensitive to the sense of belonging of other cultural or racial groups. ‘It is divisive‚ somewhat selfish and does not seem to have much regard for the centuries-old deprivation of ‘a sense of place and a sense of belonging’ that black people have had to endure‚’ Mogoeng added.

Full BDlive report

City of Tshwane v Afriforum and Another CCT 157/15