By Anna Majavu A high unemployment rate that compels young people to turn to alcohol abuse to cope, and being rejected for learnerships after the age of 35 even as octogenarians languish in Parliament on high salaries – these were chief among the complaints of young people on June 16. The Unemployed Peoples’ Movement (UPM) and Makana Citizens’ Front (MCF) held their June 16 Youth Day commemoration at the Foley Sports Ground in Hlalani, Makhanda. Nelisa Nokonyana, media liasion officer for the UPM, said the youth of 1976 had given their lives in the struggle against apartheid, only for young…
Author: Anna Majavu
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By Anna Majavu Makana municipality intends to suspend its Director of Engineering and Infrastructure Services, Asanda Gidana, over an R2.964 million payment for a water pump that was never delivered. A confidential Council meeting held on 5 June 2023 was given documents that say Gidana pre-paid Manco Business Enterprises for the pump almost one year ago “without proper due diligence”. The total bill for the pump was R4.906 million, with R2.694 million as the prepayment. This new pump for the Howieson’s Poort Dam pump station, should have been delivered and installed in February 2023, but never was. Gidana was asked…
By Anna Majavu The Action for Accountability (A4A) Project has called on the Eastern Cape MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zolile Williams, to investigate Makana municipality over its four consecutive audit disclaimers. Grocott’s Mail reported in March this year that Makana municipality had hit rock bottom after the Auditor-General (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. The A4A project, a partnership of Rhodes University’s Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF), and the Accountability Lab South…
By Anna Majavu The Makana Municipality has downplayed abysmal service delivery in Makhanda, and adopted a new Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the year which is unlikely to fix the city’s problems, opposition parties say. At a meeting of the Council on 30 May, Mthuthuzeli Mabhuti Matyumza, an ANC councillor and Speaker of the Council admitted that service delivery in Makhanda, in particular maintenance of the town’s roads, “is becoming uncontrollable”. He said the potholes right in front of the seat of the municipality, City Hall, had caused people to ask why it was that the council could not even…
By Anna Majavu The Makana Municipality yesterday put out a Water Quality Alert after water testing on 23 May found the E.coli bacteria in the water supply. In a press statement, the municipality admitted that the water tests “indicated there were failures in water quality”. E.coli, which can cause extreme vomiting and diarrhea, was found across the town, at testing sites around Settlers’ Hospital, the Extension Seven Clinic, and the Joza Indoor Sports Centre. Children under the age of five, elderly people, and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk and can become particularly ill if they drink…
By Anna Majavu The Action for Accountability (A4A) Project warned today that Makana Municipality’s refusal to obey water laws could put people at risk of contracting E.coli, which can result in severe vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes requiring urgent medical treatment and hospitalization. Municipalities are obliged to test their water and submit monthly drinking water quality compliance data to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). But Makana municipality has failed to submit water quality data since February, and the DWS has now issued them with a notice of compliance. The February results submitted by the municipality revealed that at Joza…
By Anna Majavu About 150 people blockaded a road in Alicedale, near Makhanda, on 11 and 12 May after a Transnet subcontractor, Lennings Rail of Boksburg, allegedly skipped town without paying workers it had hired to fix the railway in April this year. The workers, who are all residents of the small and impoverished town, were hired to fix and replace sleepers on the rail track in Alicedale for 10 days in April this year. But they say they still have not been paid, and that Lennings Rail managers have now vanished. Lennings Rail, owned by Sandton-based Mathupha Capital, describes…
By Anna Majavu The Unemployed Peoples’ Movement (UPM), the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and its affiliates, the Coastal Justice Network, the Climate Justice Coalition, and the global climate crisis movement, 350.org came together in Makhanda’s High Street on 27 April to plan a joint campaign for Climate Justice. The organisations had already been affected by climate change-caused floods and droughts. “We have health problems because of a lack of water. We have problems growing crops now, which means we won’t have enough food. At the same time, as young people, we are facing a huge amount of…
By Anna Majavu A giant sewage leak in Fort England’s Matthew Street has destroyed a large piece of the road, creating a huge crater that has prevented the Hartzenberg family from being able to drive in and out of their home.Two homes have also lost part of their front yards, which have been eroded away by the flood of sewage. Neighbours say the sewage water reaches heights of almost a metre when it rains, making it difficult for them to walk to nearby Raglan Road. The home of Johannes Hartzenberg and his family has also been invaded by a terrible…
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…