Author: Gcina Ntsaluba

By Gcina Ntsaluba The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) visited Makhanda on Friday and vowed to dig deeper into Makana Local Municipality’s service delivery challenges, such as the crippling water crisis. SCOPA chairman Songezo Zibi said this was a follow-up meeting to the mass march organised by local residents to demand national government intervention. “Yeah, so today we were meeting; let me put it this way: we thought SCOPA would be able to come here during oversight week.” “But there was just not enough time on the schedule. So, I then offered to come here to hear…

By Gcina Ntsaluba The Makana Citizens Front (MCF) is demanding full transparency and accountability from the Executive Mayor’s Office after two hired luxury vehicles were damaged in separate recent incidents. Chairman of MCF, Lungile Mxube, said the hiring of a Volvo SUV and a BMW constitutes an irregular, wasteful, and unauthorized expenditure in terms of Section 32 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), Act No 56 of 2003. “The Mayor is at the centre of causing institutional chaos and paralysis, and instead of curbing wasteful and irregular expenditure, the Mayor is encouraging abuse of taxpayers,” said Mxube. “We are…

By Gcina Ntsaluba The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Makhanda has laid criminal charges against the Municipal Manager (MM) of Makana Local Municipality, Pumelelo Maxwell Kate, over the continued contamination and pollution of the Kowie River. The party said the ongoing sewage leaks were affecting the quality of lives of residents and posing a serious health hazard to the community. “I have continued to raise the issue of the dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants as well as multiple and sometimes very long outstanding sewage leaks, which are affecting the quality of lives of residents and posing a serious health threat to the…