Port Alfred name change battle heads to court over ‘defective procedure’

The Port Alfred Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association (Parra) is heading to the high court over the procedure followed by the Eastern Cape Geographical Name Change Council, which is considering an application to change the names of the town and the Kowie River.

The council is considering applications to change the names of Port Alfred to iCawa or iCoyi, the Kowie River to iQoyi, and Alexandria to Nkosi Chungwa or Emnyameni.

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Parra’s attorney Marius Coetzee said last week that the legal battle at this stage was not about changing the name, but about the process being followed, as it was believed to be unlawful

He said that despite their best efforts, Parra had still not received any information setting out the basis on which the application for a name change was based.

“Our case is based on a central issue, that communities have a right to meaningful public participation. We are not opposing the application for a name change; we are fighting the process,” Coetzee said.

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He said there was a perception in the community that no real person was behind the application and that instead, the name changes were being driven by an organisation, or for the sake of politics. “We have invited the council to clear that perception,” he said.

According to court papers, Parra wants the court to decide whether the council failed to comply with the prescriptions of the South African Geographical Names Council Act, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, and its regulations and policy document in convening the public consultative process.

In papers before the court, the council is accused of acting in bad faith and deliberately attempting to frustrate Parra’s rights.

The court is asked to declare unlawful everything that has been done up to now under the name of the “public participation process” for the name changes of Port Alfred and the Kowie River.

Parra further seeks an order that the public participation process failed to comply with the requirements envisaged in the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, its regulations and the handbook published by the South African Geographical Names Council in terms of the South African Geographical Names Act.

Among the failures highlighted by Parra are:

• The council failed to publish notice of the public participation process in accordance with the prescribed requirements;
• The council failed to provide this notice with the correct timeframes;
• The council failed to provide material and relevant information in accordance with the prescribed requirements to enable meaningful engagement.

In papers before the court, Parra’s legal team said these failures “frustrated and prevented the organisation and members of the public from making representations and submissions to alter or influence the outcome of the public participation process, and they prevented them from constructively participating in the public consultative process prescribed by both the Constitution and several pieces of legislation.

Parra’s court papers further state that there had been no disclosure, before the public consultative meeting, of any documentation relevant to the proposed name change. This is not disputed by the council.

In its court papers, the council claims that its secretariat was busy with the administrative preparations “to convene an inclusive parti

cipation process”. But the council also adds that the “substance” of the application and a motivating history were presented openly at the public hearing.

The council claimed that it planned to present the motivation for the name change at the public hearing scheduled for October 2025, so that “every attendee would receive the same complete and accurate information simultaneously, thereby promoting transparency and meaningful public participation”.

But Parra’s legal team argues that this was done to frustrate efforts by the Port Alfred Community to prepare for the public participation process before the public meeting.

The team added in court papers: “The [council]’s conduct is made worse by its persistent and deliberate avoidance of a disclosure of the required documentation. Why that is relevant is that it reflects an attitude of bad faith directed at the deliberate frustration of Parra’s rights.”

The council countered that it had no objection to divulging the information, but that it was still conducting “extensive research” and “are still affording an opportunity for representations and an opportunity for fair public participation”.

Parra’s legal team continued, “The irony apparent from that [statement] is, that others were engaged with and were offered an opportunity to make representations while [Parra] was excluded from doing so by the withholding of documentation and information.”

The public participation meeting was held on 23 October 2025 without any of the requested documentation being provided to Parra’s lawyers.

Further concerns raised in court papers were that the public notices published to inform residents of the public meeting to consider the application for a name change were published in local newspapers in a shorter timeframe than the prescribed procedure required.

In his affidavit, as chairperson of the council, Christian Martin said no decision had yet been made and that the court could not “prescribe in advance what level of public participation suffices” or how the process should be managed. DM