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The Freedom Front Plus welcomes President Zuma's reaction in his parliamentary reply to the FF Plus' objections to the changing of Pretoria and other geographic names.

Mr. Zuma referred in his reply to the talks which he held with Dr. Pieter Mulder as FF Plus leader on 3 February of this year about the issue and repeated that a solution for the name change of Pretoria's name has to be sought which would satisfy all involved parties.

Following the Friday's discussion with the President (5 February 2010) the proclamation in the Government Gazette, which announced the changing of Pretoria's name, was officially withdrawn.

Dr. Mulder said in reaction that the Freedom Front Plus had made proposals to the President as to how sensitive issues such as this could be dealt with. The FF Plus will again in future participate in talks about name changes.

President Zuma's reference to the Pretoria name change follows below:

Honourable members,

In appreciating our history, we will also need to return to the difficult question of what names we should use to describe the towns, cities, streets and geographical features of our country.

The Honourable Deputy Minister and leader of the Freedom Front Plus, Dr Pieter Mulder, raised the issue of geographic name changes and specifically the name of Pretoria in his speech in this House.

I appreciate his constructive contribution to this problem.

On Wednesday 3 February, the honourable member and I had a constructive discussion in Pretoria about this problem and dealt with the issue.

I agree with him that further talks with all the parties involved will have to take place and that a solution and working method which will be acceptable to all parties will have to be found.

We must also point out that we had earlier decided, as government, not to rush with the renaming of Pretoria as it is the capital city of our country.