The local business community is angry about Makana Municipality’s lack of responsiveness to its concerns. Shop owners, business owners and Grahamstown residents expressed their frustrations at a meeting at City Hall on Thursday 17 October.
The local business community is angry about Makana Municipality’s lack of responsiveness to its concerns. Shop owners, business owners and Grahamstown residents expressed their frustrations at a meeting at City Hall on Thursday 17 October.
The meeting organised by the Makana United Business Chamber (MUBC) attracted close to 80 people who were mainly united by their dissatisfaction with the municipality.
Some individuals in the audience expressed disappointment about the non-appearance of Mayor Zamuxolo Peter and Municipal Manager Pravine Naidoo but a spokesman of the MUBC pointed out that the two officials had not been invited to the meeting.
The MUBC, a joint venture between the Grahamstown Business Forum and the Makana Development Business Forum, has on many occasions written to the municipality and published an open letter in this newspaper requesting an opportunity to engage with senior officials.
Various community leaders including prominent businessmen Lungile Mxube and Eugene Repinz as well as DA caucus leader Les Reynolds addressed the gathering decrying the inability of the municipality to carry out its duties.
Reynolds was particularly scathing of the municipal leadership saying that it had run out of money because "they keep hiring new people".
The main purpose of the meeting was to rally support for initiatives to engage with the municipality even as some members argued that the only way to spur the officials into action would be to launch legal action.
