Author: Grocott's Mail

A big shout out to SIZO MEDIA for these listings!Stay in the loop with the latest and join the MEW WhatsApp group! POP-UPS/ FESTIVALS/ EXHIBITIONS/ REPEAT EVENTS Friday, 9 June – Saturday, 10 June WESSA 1st Pass Excursion: Zuurberg PassJoin WESSA on sightseeing the “forgotten” long and sometimes extreme gravel pass approximately 27,5 km long, Zuurberg Pass. It is one of the longer passes in South Africa and traverses all four tiers of the dominant Zuurberg Mountain range.Vehicles will leave at 14:00 from Eden Grove, 09 June, to overnight at the Zuurberg Inn villages and complete the pass the next day.Contact details: Leo Goosen…

By Rod Amner Fikizolo Primary School rolled out an exuberantly South African welcome of marimbas, song, dance, and praise poetry to a special visitor from Toronto, Canada, on 7 June. Courtney Doldron from Toronto’s Rotary Club of North York is in Makhanda until 25 June to scope a five-year project to provide training and support to up to 50 local teachers. Doldron is a human rights activist, former teacher, and secretary of the Basic Education and Literacy Rotary Action Group (Belrag), which supports international literacy aid projects. Belrag works with Education Beyond Borders, which operates five-year Train the Trainer programmes…

By Sinalo Peyi The local members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) stood up against the high rate of drug usage in the small location of Bathurst in the Eastern Cape and conducted a Drug Awareness Day campaign in the SDA building. The church members invited community leaders who were the speakers on the day. The community leaders spoke about the importance of the day, noting that the drug usage rate was increasing every day among the youth in Bathurst. The campaign kicked off on 12 May 2023 in the morning when the first speaker addressed the community. A…

By Staff Reporter A man suspected of transporting more than R1 million worth of poached abalone has been caught outside Makhanda – after he crashed his car while attempting to smuggle the rare mollusks from Gqeberha to Bloemfontein. The South African Police Services (SAPS) said in a press release that police were told that a white Toyota bakkie was transporting abalone on the R350 road late at night on 3 June. The Makhanda K9 unit then spotted the bakkie 27 kilometres outside Makhanda, which had crashed and been abandoned. “Off duty Seargeant Anthony Benade of the Makhanda K9 Unit, assisted…

By Pulane Choane This week, Rhodes Music Radio (RMR 89.7FM), South Africa’s first legal campus community radio station, announced that its radio license had been renewed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for the next seven years until 2030. This news follows the station’s relaunch in August last year, with its new Station Manager, Unathi Koboka, taking the helm after a turbulent period of change at the station that saw management changes and a reduced programming schedule since December 2021. “The radio industry is currently facing serious challenges, which have been intensified for many local radio stations,…

By Staff Reporter A fire broke out in Checkers, in High Street, at about 2pm on 28 May, causing staff to quickly evacuate all shoppers. Bystanders praised the Makhanda Fire Brigade for arriving and dousing the fire very fast. No injuries were reported. The store’s manager would not confirm that an oil fryer inside the store was the cause of the fire, referring Grocott’s Mail to Checkers’ Head Office, who would also not give the newspaper any details.

By Steven Lang There’s good news and bad news depending on where you live in Makhanda, according to the latest crime stats. On Tuesday, 30 May, the South African Police Service (SAPS) released crime statistics for the first quarter of 2023. Two police stations serve Makhanda: Grahamstown Police Station on Beaufort Street and Joza Police Station on Sani Road in Joza. Comparing contact crimes, such as murder, sexual offences, assault and robbery, it appears that the number of incidents reported at the Grahamstown Police Station during the first quarter has gradually declined over the past five years. There were 229…

By Staff Reporter The Eastern Province Schools Rugby teams have been announced, and Graeme College, Kingswood College, and St Andrews’ College have all made the cut. Kingswood College has eight players selected for the EP U18 team: Sinengomso Brawen, Tadiwa Chikutiro, Amazing Vheriwa, Phikolomzi Petse, Sipho Nonyalela, Tapiwa Zhanda, Likhona Kepe, and Praise Matsila. This is the highest contribution from any one school to the age group. Graeme College succeeded in getting four players (AC Mnandi, Batho Hlekani, Abongile Golela, and Ayola Mali) onto the EP Rugby U18 team. From Kingswood College, five players have been selected for the academy…

By Anga-Anganda Bushwana and Sisipho Pinyana Unhappy and outraged residents of Makhanda vented their frustrations at a public meeting with the council at City Hall on 24 May. The council had called the meeting to present the final Integrated Development Plan (IDP) that they’d developed out of several public meetings held earlier in the year. But residents accused the council of being “blind” to the problems of the town, and of making “empty promises”. According to resident and community activist, Philip Machanick, things in the town were going backwards, compared to the water situation in 2019 when there was an…

By Rod Amner GADRA Education is “past ready and steady” – it is set to go. This is according to treasurer Margie Keeton, who reported GADRA Education’s highest-ever income levels in 2022 – over R16-million – to a large and appreciative group of educationalists, parents, and students gathered for the 2023 AGM on the evening of Tuesday, 23 May. Expenditure was kept under R10-million. Keeton showed that GADRA Education’s balance sheet – the surplus of assets over liabilities – had been on a “robust and resilient” upward trajectory, from under R500 000 in 2013 to over R37-million in 2022. “We…