Pretoria again officially Pretoria after minister complies with AfriForum demand

Pretoria's name is now officially Pretoria again. This comes after the Minister of Arts and Culture, Ms. Lulu Xingwana, today complied with AfriForum's demand that the changing of Pretoria's name to Tshwane be retracted by means of an official notice in the government gazette. The retraction was published on p. 5 of Government Gazette No. 32916, which appeared today.

Earlier this week AfriForum served a lawyer's letter on the Department of Arts and Culture indicating that AfriForum would request and urgent court order to set aside Pretoria's name change if the change announced in last Friday's Government Gazette No. 32898 was not retracted in today's government gazette.

Kallie Kriel, executive director of AfriForum, said his organisation is delighted that Pretoria's name is now officially Pretoria again. Kriel thanked AfriForum's legal team as well as the literally thousands of people who have made their voices heard over Pretoria's name, for their help in achieving this success. Kriel also thanked the Minister of Arts and Culture for being bighearted enough to withdraw the name change.

According to Kriel, AfriForum will, however, continue to monitor the situation closely and AfriForum's legal team is ready for any development. "The courts have already declared Louis Trichardt's name change process invalid on similar grounds and AfriForum will endeavour for the same to happen with any renewed effort to change Pretoria's name that might arise in future."

However, according to Kriel, the issue surrounding Pretoria's name will still be heard in the Pretoria High Court on 25 and 26 March 2010, but this time to obtain legal certainty over the fact that a municipal name is not a geographical place name.

Statement issued by Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, February 5 2010

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