AfriForum welcomes the SABC's acceptance of the fact that Pretoria is not "Tshwane"
AfriForum welcomed the SABC's decision to abide by the ruling of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) in AfriForum's favour that the public broadcaster may not use "Tshwane" to refer to Pretoria. This follows after Fakir Hassen, the SABC's Manager of Broadcast Compliance, informed SABC reporters yesterday via internal e-mail that they henceforth can no longer refer to "Tshwane" when covering news in Pretoria. Hassen also indicated in the e-mail that the SABC has no grounds upon which to appeal against the BCCSA's ruling.
According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the SABC's decision to respect the framework of rules and regulations within which they function, should serve as example for the Tshwane Metropolitan Council, which is continuously trying to evade and undermine place-name legislation.
Apart from the BCCSA's judgement in AfriForum's favour that Pretoria is the legal name of the capital, the Advertising Standards Authority has, according to Kriel, also already ruled in AfriForum's favour that Tshwane cannot be represented as being a place name in advertising, while the Supreme Court has decided in AfriForum's favour as well that Pretoria cannot be replaced with "Tshwane" on road signs. "The Tshwane Metropolitan Council should now accept for once and for all that the capital's name is Pretoria. If not, AfriForum will continue using every possible instrument to oppose the Metropolitan Council's efforts to mislead the public regarding the name of the capital," Kriel added.
In Kriel's opinion, it is a win-win solution to retain Pretoria as name of the city, while calling the Metropolitan Council Tshwane. "Efforts to sweep this win-win solution from the table, only serve to divide communities even further, to the detriment of all in the country," Kriel said.
Statement issued by Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, July 2 2009
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