It's official: Nelspruit is no more

11 May 2014 - 02:01 By African Eye News Service
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The four-year battle over the name of Mpumalanga's capital city is over.

This follows a ruling by the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday setting aside an application to have the new name, Mbombela, changed back to Nelspruit.

"We will abide by the court's decision," said Linda Grimbeek, spokeswoman for the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism, which had challenged the name change on the basis that the process had been "flawed".

"The judge's decision was based of the fact that the name change was gazetted four years ago," said Grimbeek. "He said we cannot turn back the course of history. Our lawyers are still studying the ruling and they will tell us where to go from here."

The court set aside the chamber's application with costs, which means Nelspruit is now officially Mbombela .

The provincial government welcomed the decision. "We can move forward with the mandate of unifying our people," said Sibongile Nkosi, spokeswoman for Mpumalanga's department of culture, sport and recreation.

She said the municipality would fast-track changing street and other signs to reflect the new name.

But Grimbeek said the municipality was unlikely to be able to afford the R450-million needed to make the changes.

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