By Luvuyo Mjekula
Makana’s broken roads and infrastructure are in for a much-needed makeover after council this week approved spending R30m of grant funding on upgrading and surfacing the municipality’s internal roads and R9.2m on repairing those hit hard by floods in 2023.
It was reported at a special council meeting on Wednesday that the municipality had secured a total of R69.2m in grant funding – an estimated R60m from the office of the premier, as part of the Small Towns Revitalisation Programme (STRP), and R9.2m under the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant.
Council agreed that the lion’s share of the funds (R30m) will go towards Makana’s internal roads while the entire R9.2m will repair flood-damaged roads and infrastructure in Makhanda.
The remaining R30m of the funding will be divided between two projects – the Driving Licence Testing Centre (R15m) and the Makana Electrification Project (R15m).
According to a memorandum of agreement between the municipality and the premier’s office, on 27 January 2023, the municipality submitted a request to the office for intervention to benefit from the STRP, listing critical projects with proposed costs. The projects included upgrading and surfacing of roads and stormwater infrastructure, electrification and the project of upgrading and improving water and sanitation.
The office of the premier considered and approved the request for assistance for allocation in the 2024/25 medium term expenditure framework ending in March 2027. A solar energy project for municipal offices was not approved.
A service level agreement will be signed next month, and the time frame for the projects funded under the STRP is three years, from 1 April 2024 to 27 March 2027.
Municipal manager Pumelelo Kate also submitted, for council’s approval, a report containing a list of flood-damaged roads requiring repairs.
According to the report, the municipality suffered damage, mainly to its road infrastructure, on 15 September 2023. Some roads, both surfaced and unsurfaced, were washed away by the floods.
The National Disaster Management Centre declared the floods a national disaster for the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.
Following collaboration in all three spheres of government, plans were put in place to work together to fund and repair the damages.
A business plan and the assessment report were prepared and submitted to the provincial disaster management centre and on 22 March 2024, the Makana municipality was invited for a virtual inception meeting for the approved funding of R9.2m for the road repairs for flood damages. An amount of R9.2m was transferred to the municipality for the project on the same day.
In terms of the project, Currie Street will undergo reconstruction at a cost of R3m, while road and stormwater infrastructure work in Market Street will be allocated R2m and roads and stormwater infrastructure in York and Siegfried streets R3.7m.
Vukani residents are also set to benefit from the re-gravelling of the area, at a cost of R500 000.
It is expected that the project will be implemented over a period of six months from the day of the grant transfer.
In his opening remarks, council Speaker, Mabhuti Matyumza, had alluded to water and road infrastructure problems posing a serious challenge to the municipality. However, he said the leadership was working towards solving the problems.
The meeting also approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the municipality and Kagiso Trust. Kate said the municipality had had a good working relationship with the company, assisting the municipailty in a variety of matters. “Now we know that the MOU has come to an end and so this [council]item is an intention to renew the MOU,” he said.
Matyumza said the new MOU has been long awaited.
DA councillor Luvuyo Sizani said MOUs tend to be good on paper, and not on actual delivery. Nevertheless he moved for the approval of the MOU.
