TITLE:
The Challenges of Name Change in South Africa: The Case of Makhado Town
AUTHORS:
Mavhungu E. Musitha
KEYWORDS:
Consultation, Citizen Participation, Makhado Municipality, Chairperson’s Association, Social Cohesion
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
22,
2016
ABSTRACT: This was a descriptive and qualitative case study that investigated the processes involving citizen participation in the course of the attempts to replace the name Louis Trichardt with the name Makhado. I conducted qualitative and descriptive investigation based on data from literature. The data were collated from the literature, i.e. articles, policies, government legislations, municipal- reports, attendance registers and reports. The data were collected and captured in excel and analyzed with results shown in tables and figures. In terms of results the study has found that Makhado municipality has widely invited the participation of residents through various platforms. It further revealed that only 6.7% participated in the renaming process. It was also found that 51% of residents participated in ward 20 while 49% participated in ward 21. Finally, the study concluded by revealing that the majority of the residents did not participate in the consultation process. In conclusion, the study revealed that the majority of the people failed to participate in the renaming process to change the name Louis Trichardt to Makhado. Low participation by residents rendered the proposed name illegitimate. While wards 20 and 21 are predominantly comprised of whites, only a few come out to participate. Low participation by whites suggests that they still want to defend racial identity because the name Louis Trichardt is that of an historical Afrikaans leader. Whites launch court challenges against the new names to protect white names. The study recommends 1) use of the names of people must be prohibited; 2) double-barrel renaming must be encouraged so as to incorporate old names with new names and 3) procedures for name-changing need to be widely publicized so as to ensure that the public is properly informed.