By Gcina Ntsaluba With Disability Rights Awareness Month ending on Wednesday (3 December), a local social worker is calling attention to the stark realities facing Makhanda’s disabled community, where crumbling infrastructure, absent educational facilities, and economic hardship create daily obstacles. The Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities (APD) is one lifeline for disabled residents across Makana municipality. Operating with just two staff members, the organisation provides home-based care to clients who often cannot access town due to mobility challenges. “Most of the time, we visit people because people with disabilities struggle to get to town. We see them at their…
Author: Gcina Ntsaluba
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By Gcina Ntsaluba The Makana Local Municipality held an ordinary council meeting on Thursday where councillors addressed pressing waste management concerns and approved new by-laws for stray animal control. The meeting, held at the Monument due to ongoing City Hall renovations, saw the council grappling with the lifespan of the existing landfill site and progress on identifying a new location. Reducing the burden on the landfill The Director of Public Safety and Community Services presented a comprehensive report on the current landfill site’s remaining capacity and efforts to extend its operational life. The municipality has implemented several interventions to prolong the…
By Gcina Ntsaluba The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Training Dr Mimmy Gondwe has urged young people to embrace educational opportunities beyond traditional universities, emphasising that technical and vocational training can be equally transformative. Speaking at a campaign event in Makhanda in support of the DA candidate for the upcoming by-elections in ward 10, Gondwe shared her personal journey through South Africa’s education system and highlighted the critical role of skills development in addressing the country’s unemployment crisis. “Education opens doors for you that no one else can open,” Gondwe said, “if you see me today,…
By Gcina Ntsaluba The Grahamstown Flying Club has raised urgent safety concerns over two major infrastructure projects that could jeopardise the continued operation of Makhanda’s only registered airfield and severely limit the city’s air access. The club warns that a proposed wind farm development north-west of the aerodrome, featuring turbines reaching heights of up to 187 metres, combined with the Grahamstown 400/132kV Substation Integration Project, could effectively “sterilize” the airfield’s approach environment and compromise future safe aviation operations. Such operations include any expansion of the airfield for scheduled traffic, which would require greater compliance with aviation standards. Boxed in The…
By Gcina Ntsaluba After losing their jobs at Woolworths Digital in April, Malusi Mbulwana-Barnard and his co-founder, Palesa Mjali, turned unemployment into an opportunity to address a transportation challenge they were all too familiar with: connecting rural South African communities to affordable long-distance travel. HIKA, a ride-sharing platform that takes its name from the colloquial term “ukuhiker” (hitchhiking). Two weeks after launch, the startup is already positioning itself as a solution for journeys that the big e-hailing services don’t adequately serve. Born from personal frustration “We both had to travel from Cape Town to the Eastern Cape, and I was…
By Gcina Ntsaluba The Rape Survivors Support Group Safe House Programme is under scrutiny following revelations of significant financial irregularities, with conflicting reports identifying between R39,920 and R63,000 in questionable expenditure from government funds meant to support gender-based violence victims. A report released to Grocott’s Mail details unexplained spending of R39,920 for the 2024/2025 financial year at establishments including KFC, Hungry Lion, liquor shops, kwaNobalasele shebeen, Engen garage, and various retail outlets, with “no compliance documents submitted as required by both Public Financial Management Act and the NPO Act”. However, a separate analysis by a source with knowledge of the…
By Gcina Ntsaluba Books that were banned during South Africa’s apartheid era are now on display at Rhodes University Main Library, offering students and the public a glimpse into one of the darkest chapters of the country’s censorship history. According to Wynand van der Walt, senior manager for innovation, systems and collections at the university’s library, the exhibition represents a small portion of the more than 26 000 titles listed in Jacobsen’s Index of Objectionable Literature, a comprehensive catalogue of materials the apartheid state sought to suppress. “These books were banned not for lacking literary merit, but for being perceived…
By Gcina Ntsaluba The National Arts Festival has lost R5.5 million in government funding after Minister Gayton McKenzie’s Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture withdrew support from the country’s flagship cultural events, leaving thousands of jobs at risk and threatening South Africa’s cultural heritage. Monica Newton, CEO of the National Arts Festival, revealed that the 50-year-old event was excluded from the new Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE) funding model because it fell outside the department’s narrow time requirements, despite having a productive three-year partnership with the national government until 2024. “Unfortunately, the national Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture…
By Gcina Ntsaluba A new United Nations report shows the world is not doing enough to help women and girls achieve equality. Without major changes, 351 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030. The report, named the ‘Gender Snapshot 2025’, looks at how women are doing across the globe. The results show that while some progress has been made, much more work is needed. Poverty hits women harder Right now, about 376 million women and girls live on less than R37.30 per day. That’s 21 million more than men and boys in the same situation.…
By Gcina Ntsaluba In the heart of the Eastern Cape, where sporting legends are born and educational pioneers have long shaped young minds, a new tradition is about to begin. From 13–16 August, Ntsika Secondary School is hosting the inaugural Mdyesha Legacy Games, a multi-sport community festival that celebrates athletic achievement and the impact one remarkable family has had on generations of South Africans. Organised by Khulasande Sports Development, the games honour the Mdyesha family whose lives exemplify the transformative power of sport, education, and community service. Four days of community celebration The festival kicked off on Wednesday 13 August…