Advocate Jock McConnachie is the Grocott’s Mail Makana Newsmaker of the Year for 2010.
Advocate Jock McConnachie is the Grocott’s Mail Makana Newsmaker of the Year for 2010.
The decision was based on the question, “Who made our news pages most often, and how influential was he as a newsmaker?” There were several contenders for the title, but in the end discussions about the relative prominence of McConnachie did not last very long.
He featured in our pages often both as a newsmaker and as a letter writer, to the extent that when we did a search on our computer system, we found he had been mentioned in 43 items this year. As a founder member and leader of the Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG) campaign, McConnachie played a leading role in the debate concerning efforts to rename the city.
He participated in a live panel discussion on Radio Grahamstown on this issue, and sent in several letters, as well as a detailed timeline to the editor of Grocott’s Mail. He also played a prominent role in the debate concerning the proposed construction of an inter-city bus terminus on Bathurst Street.
McConnachie wrote on behalf of the Commemoration Methodist Church Property Trust to the Municipal Manager, Ntombi Baart; to the Eastern Cape Provincial Heritage Resources Agency and of course to Grocott’s Mail objecting, on various grounds, to the proposal. He pointed out that the municipality did not have a valid permit for the project and he also raised concerns about the aesthetic ramifications of putting up a new building in a heritage area.
Staying on heritage matters, McConnachie was quoted several times in articles about the process instituted by the Heritage Resources Agency to evict the Backpackers from the Old Gaol on Somerset Street. He said Grahamstown would “be the poorer without the Old Gaol Backpackers” and questioned whether the agency had any viable plans for the building.
Until March this year, McConnachie was leader of the Democratic Alliance in the Makana Municipal area. He found, however, that party politics was not an effective way of addressing the needs of our community, so he formed a new political movement called the Makana Independent New Deal (Mind), as a grouping of independent candidates to contest the next local government elections.
McConnachie said the aim of the movement was to take control of local government and reinstate a system of directly accountable, independent councillors of standing in the community.
McConnachie once again came to the fore in August during the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) strike, when three municipal employees trespassed on private property to help themselves to garbage that they wanted to throw on to the street. He managed to find a photograph of the three perpetrators, which he then sent to the Municipal Manager, asking her what she was going to do about this.
McConnachie also took a public stand on racist incidents that happened during the Salem land disputes in April. He arranged a meeting at the request of the provincial head of the Human Rights Commission, advocate Solomon Moreroa, in an effort to start an ongoing dialogue about racism within the Salem community. McConnachie has been involved in many other aspects of our community life and has never been afraid to express his opinion.
He has written to us criticising the Justice Minister’s plans to move the High Court to Bisho; he slammed deplorable salary increases for councillors; and asked questions about the reluctance of police officers to prevent the widespread disruption of town life during the Samwu strike.
His outspoken frankness has won him admirers, but has also created enemies. One such enemy even asked for Grocott’s Mail to declare a moratorium on McConnachie letters and whenever Makana Municipality spokesman, Thandy Matebese, writes to this newspaper, he makes a point of lampooning McConnachie, referring to him as the “advocate for controversy” and “his Jock of the Bushveld tactics”, as well as “his Hollywood-style publicity stunts”.
Taking all of the above into consideration, we have nominated Advocate Jock McConnachie as Newsmaker of the Year. Yes, there were others who achieved prominence in this year, but none have made the news as frequently on such a wide range of issues.
We considered: Mayor Vumile Lwana; Municipal Manager, Ntombi Baart; National Arts Festival Director, Ismail Mahomed; Mandla Gagayi, assistant at Sport Administration at Rhodes, and the university’s vice chancellor, Saleem Badat. In the end, we were confident of our choice. If you would like to comment on our selection, please write to letters@grocotts.co.za
