You go to any city or town in South Africa and there is little connection between the street names and the black citizens of that town. Do all those citizens have a right to come to court and ask that those names be removed‚ Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng asked at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday.

The Constitutional Court was presiding over an appeal by the City of Tshwane.

The City of Tshwane had lost its bid to challenge a ruling made in April 2013 that interdicted it from removing the capital’s old street names. The municipality took down the old street names‚ which temporarily appeared with the new names‚ in 2013 while the legal challenge by minority rights lobby group AfriForum was still pending.

The City had claimed it removed the old names to form a “new African Capital City‚ reflective of a common heritage‚ identity and destiny”.

 Addressing counsel for AfriForum Doif Raath‚ Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng raised the issue of a majority of the black citizens not being able to relate to the street names in their respective towns.

Raath said the exclusion of the old names would result in the loss of heritage and culture of those who had a vested interest in the old names.

“This is not an application to remove the new names. We are asking that the old ones be kept as well so that they are not in disuse. That is all we seek‚” Raath said.

 Judgment was reserved.