Willie Maphosa – council spokesperson

Judging by an article in the last issue of Potchefstroom Herald, many people, including some councillors, seem to have disparate conceptions of the public participation process that was engaged upon with regard to finding a name for the NW405 Municipality.
As reported, this mixed understanding has since aborted a council meeting, meant to debate the name, as opposition parties walked out. At a subsequent council meeting this week, the DA, FF Plus and the independents walked out again, leaving the ANC and the EFF to complete and finalise the name of the municipality.
I would like to clarify how the public consultation process works in this regard. The key legislative and policy instruments that guided the process are the Municipal Systems Act No 32 of 2000 and the erstwhile Tlokwe City Council’s naming policy.
The systems act compels municipalities to consult when taking decisions on matters that have an impact on the lives of residents.
In this particular naming campaign, three platforms were made available for people to engage, i.e. ward-based public meetings (there were 28 meetings with attendance figures ranging from 30 to 90), a dedicated email address for people to make submissions and drop boxes placed in strategic areas where people could post their suggestions.
The report of the council’s naming portfolio committee listed all the names that were suggested and highlighted the four that were most frequently suggested. The frequency of the suggestions was not determined by counting individual heads but by the number of occasions that the suggested name came up. In many ward-based meetings, for example, there were two or three names that people agreed upon and nominated for the council to debate and choose from. Each name suggested in these meetings was counted as one.
This was in contrast to the names that were suggested through the drop boxes and the dedicated email address, which were counted per head.
It is, therefore, clearly incorrect to claim that the process was a vote. The legislative and policy prescripts that guided the naming process required the municipality to consult as widely as possible. While voting may well be a form of consultation, it is not the only mechanism, certainly not during the process we underwent.
If we were to consider the process as a vote, it would be unfair to those who attended the public meetings and were not given such opportunity. The intention of the whole exercise was for council to get a general idea of what people think of the name. Within the context of the guidelines provided for them to make suggestions, the council would then discuss and consider the appropriate name.
The naming portfolio committee suggested four names for the council to consider, namely Tlokwe, JB Marks, Oompie Mashi and Josie Mpama. All things considered and including the aggregate suggestions and the context of the guidelines provided, the municipality is satisfied that it has provided ample opportunity for community participation in this regard and that the name JB Marks is a suitable one.