By Mbali Tanana, Amahle Cele and Luvuyo Mjekula
“Do the honourable thing and resign, because if you can do something about this situation, why are you doing nothing?”
These were the words of local lawyer Izak Smuts at the Makana Municipality-hosted stakeholder engagement session at the City Hall on Tuesday.
The municipality invited local stakeholders to a service delivery-related stakeholder engagement session.
Smuts, a resident of Makhanda since 1958, did not hold back.
He urged mayor Yandiswa Vara and municipal manager Pumelelo Kate to resign. He said it was evident they had no capacity to run the municipality, as the city was currently in ruins.
Colette Kaiser of the Grahamstown Hospitality Guild said: “It makes it very difficult to conduct business in this town, we are being charged commercial rates for our big properties that aren’t even generating revenue because of the circumstances in the town. Also we are expected to pay exorbitant increases, that go up to 300 percent with no pre warning, can the municipality please address this?”
Another agrieved ratepayer, who claimed to have never owed the municipality, said he was tired of paying for services he was not getting. “I was hoping that we would have the city’s CFO here, because he also needs to account and explain. All our issues are relating to finances. There are unfair property evaluations, and worker education training that seems to be missing, which has escalated, allowing the workers to behave and react the way they are.”
Another resident said lack of oversight and monitoring led to the abuse of overtime that the workers were entitled to. “Nobody goes to work already knowing they are going to claim overtime, but because supervisors and leaders are not monitoring, the workers then abuse it.”
“We are being put at war with workers when governance and leadership is the problem. Our problems are not limited to water, yes that is our imperative right, but our entire town is in ruins, from streetlights, potholes, stormwater drainage systems, to parks and recreational activities – we are in a genocide.”
“Citizens need to be included in the turnaround strategies, not just government working in isolation because we want to help and we are heavily affected when nothing is happening.”
Meanwhile, the Makana Municipality reported earlier yesterday (Thursday) that Water and Sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina had to postpone her visit to Makhanda this week due to bad weather.
The municipality had put out a poster notifiying the public about Majodina’s visit. “Minister of Water and Sanitation, Honourable Pemmy Majodina is launching James Kleynhans Bulk Water Supply at Makana Municipality Makhanda on 13 September 2024 at 12:00,” the poster read.
Yesterday night, the municipality put out another notice informing the public that the launch had been postponed. “The Department Water Affairs team was unable to land in Eastern Cape due to bad weather,” the notice read.
Following the recent water crisis in Makhanda and a myriad complaints from frustrated residents, reports in the media stated that the Eastern Cape Human Rights Commission had sent summonses for Makana Municipality’s senior leaders to appear before the commission to account for the crisis.
