by Anna Majavu Makana executive mayor Yandiswa Vara says she is “definitely not proud” that the municipality has received its fourth negative audit opinion in a row. Speaking at the City Hall on 14 March during a consultative Integrated Development Plan meeting with residents, Vara said the municipality’s troubles “have been coming on for some time, and it is not going to take [only] a night to solve them”. Earlier this month, the Auditor-General (AG) gave Makana municipality another disclaimer after finding R577.4 million unauthorised expenditure and R7.8 million fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The AG also pointed out that these…
Author: Anna Majavu
by Anna Majavu Makana municipality has allegedly banned all overtime payments for municipal workers, leaving residents affected by electricity breakdowns in the night or on weekends with no hope of help coming until the next working day. The apparent ban on overtime has irked opposition parties, the Makana Citizen’s Front (MCF) and Democratic Alliance (DA). “We don’t have a municipality. It has collapsed. One moment, it has a disclaimer and the next moment, they don’t have money to pay for overtime” said MCF secretary Ayanda Kota. Makana Citizen’s Front secretary Ayanda Kota. Photo: Daylin Paul/New Frame. Kota said the provincial…
Makana municipality has received its fourth negative audit report from the Auditor-General (AG) in a row, after the AG found it had no proper plans for service delivery, and no system to punish the municipal officials who committed unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Presented at a special meeting of the council at City Hall on 28 February, the report by AG Tsakani Maluleke listed over 80 areas where the municipality had failed to provide proper financial information to her. She gave Makana municipality a negative “disclaimer” opinion for the 2021/22 financial year, as had happened in the 2020/21 financial…
by ANNA MAJAVU Eastern Cape social movements came together on 22 February to protest against another austerity budget announced by Finance minister Enoch Godongwana. The protest, which followed a budget workshop at The Monument from 20 – 22 February, was part of a three day national speak out and wave of demonstrations against the government. About 100 members of the UPM, Makana Citizens Front (MCF), Isikhalo Womxn’s Movement against Gender-Based Violence, Amandla Collective of Gqeberha, the Alternative Information and Development Centre, Cry of the Xcluded, and Independent Komani Residents Association, discussed how they were affected by austere budgets in which…
By ANNA MAJAVU Disturbed by the gruesome killings of local ‘amaphara’ (petty criminals), allegedly by the Grahamstown Anti-Crime group, Makhanda residents are speaking out against rising levels of vigilantism. The “Grahamstown Anti-Crime” Facebook group has almost 40 000 members and is run by Luyanda Sakata, a former ANC ward councillor in Grahamstown, also known as “Honey”. But Sakata is now out on R500 bail, charged with murdering a young man who had been accused of housebreaking and theft. A discussion is also underway on the Facebook group about the murder of a second young man. Both victims’ identities are known to…
by ANNA MAJAVU A Grahamstown Feeding Association (GFA) survey has found that 9000 households, or a total of 51 750 people in Makhanda, survive on less than one meal a day, and that if the proposed High Court relocation to Bhisho goes ahead, the resulting job losses will cause “unmitigated devastation” to the town’s food security. In their submission to the government committee to rationalise the areas served by South Africa’s High Courts, GFA chairperson Gunda Krause said many people who lost their jobs and income during the Covid-19 pandemic now sourced their only meal of the day from Makhanda’s food…
By ANNA MAJAVU Parents and learners have shut down the Riebeeck East Combined School over the dire shortage of educators. The shutdown started on 19 January and will continue until the Eastern Cape education department appoints more educators, parents say. The small school of 93 learners, 42 kilometres away from Makhanda, has just three educators who teach all nine grades. One educator teaches Grades 1, 2, and 3 in the same classroom. The other two educators teach Grades 3-9. The school principal doubles up as a third educator. A parent who did not want to be named said it was…