Legal action over Pretoria name changes
2012-04-02 17:04
Pretoria - Lobby group AfriForum will take the Tshwane municipality to court if it insists on changing 27 street names in Pretoria without a judicial review, the organisation said on Monday.
"We have been instructed by our client to initiate such a judicial review process and papers to this effect will be served on your offices in due course," AfriForum said in a lawyer's letter handed over to mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa's office.
AfriForum brought a similar interdict before the court in 2008, but withdrew it from the roll after an undertaking by the municipality that a decision would be made only after public consultation.
The group argued that this had not been done and, therefore, last week's decision to implement the changes was premature.
"Should this be the case, your decision to effect street name changes without a process of public consultation and despite undertakings given under oath in your answering papers, amount to a contemptuous disregard for the processes of court," AfriForum wrote.
In the letter, it asked for a written undertaking that implementation would be held off pending judicial review by no later than April 16.
"Should we not receive your undertaking by the said date, our instructions are to apply to the high court for an interdict prohibiting the implementation of the name changes pending the finalisation of a judicial review of the council’s decision," it wrote.
- SAPA