Author: Grocott's Mail Contributors

The Black Sash Trust, represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, has urgently approached the High Court in Pretoria in an effort to interdict SASSA from stopping the Covid-19 Caregiver Grant. On Friday, 30 October, the Pretoria High Court is set to hear an urgent application brought by the Black Sash Trust against the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the Ministers of Social Development and Finance. This application concerns the R500 Caregiver Grant that will terminate at the end of the month. One week ago, on 23 October, SASSA confirmed on its official Twitter account that all the top…

Vuyani Nesi of the ANC and the EFF’s Busisiwe Wendy Nyamakazi have been confirmed as candidates for the 11 November by-election for Ward 14 in Makana Municipality. The DA is not fielding a candidate in this by-election. Ward 14 includes the rural areas of Alicedale, Highlands and Seven Fountains. Ernest Louw, of the ANC, resigned as Ward 14 councillor in February this year. More than 440 candidates from 40 political parties are set to contest the by-elections in 95 wards across South African on 11 November 2020. A total of 444 candidates – including 19 independent candidates – were this…

By Garth Sampson The Port Elizabeth Office of the South African weather Service is monitoring the predicted development of a weather system which may result in some moderate to heavy rainfall over the Eastern Cape Region from Saturday 31 October Afternoon  in the form of showers and thundershowers. The system that is anticipated is called an upper air cut-off low pressure with a surface high pressure system feeding in moisture from the Ocean. Unfortunately the development and movement of these systems are extremely difficult to predict and there is a lot of discrepancy between our forecast models. While some models…

Makana Tourism and Grocott’s Mail are calling all photo and film enthusiasts to tell us their Makana story. Winners will walk away with an exclusive safari experience and dedicated online photo-editing tutorials. For many years, the people of Makana have shared their colourful traditions and cultures through the art of oral story-telling, literature and illustrations. As the digital age surpasses most ancient and intimate traditional platforms, we have to ensure these stories are preserved and shared by memory institutions and general public for many years to come. Therefore, Makana Tourism in partnership with Grocott’s Mail is launching a photo and film…

By ANDREW KIRK The annual Remembrance Day Parade takes place on Sunday 8 November 2020 at 10.30am in Church Square. The Parade is held each year to pay tribute to the men and women of the Grahamstown District who served in the armed forces on various battlefields both at home and abroad who gave their lives for freedom. Serving members of 1st City Regiment, 6 SA Infantry, the Police Service, representatives of Makana Municipality, members of the ex-servicemen’s and women’s associations, along with local schools have been invited to participate in this ceremony. Members of the public are most welcome…

Applications for the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Fellowship Programme close on 30 October 2020 Applications for the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Fellowship Programme – which prepares first-year university students for life as high-impact, responsible entrepreneurs – will close on Friday 30 October 2020. In a media release, the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation said it was committed to investing in the education and development of individuals with entrepreneurial potential in Southern Africa and was calling on first-year university students to apply for the Foundation’s Fellowship Programme. “The Fellowship provides education beyond a degree, offering  holistic entrepreneurial training to ensure that Candidate…

The Department of Music and Musicology regrets to announce that the performance on 8 November 2020 will no longer be open to the public due to concern about rising Covid infections on campus. However, the concert will be presented as a live online event. Please click on one of the links below to watch this performance live at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RhodesMusic2019/live/ Youtube  https://youtu.be/PFZLeioUPEQ The concert was to have taken place in the Rhodes Chapel and tickets which have been sold already will be refunded. Please contact Ms Mnyobe 046 6038490 or v.mnyobe@ru.ac.za if you would like a refund. Should you wish to…

Makana Tourism in association with Graham Hotel will be kicking the cabin fever away with Makhanda’s Creepy Pub Crawl on Saturday, 31 October – a haunt and history walk scary enough to creep you out! History enthusiasts and pub crawlers can expect a chilling and entertaining experience of Makhanda’s iconic and historic buildings and streets plus an opportunity to flaunt their best costumes for a chance to win amazing prizes. The haunt and history walk will also feature stops at popular waterholes with complimentary drinks, food tasting, live entertainment, Halloween-inspired games and so much more. This forms part of Makana…

Storytime, puppet shows and craft workshops form part of a special online school holiday programme running 26 October to Sunday 1 November. National Book Week (NBW) is held annually in September to celebrate and accelerate interest in reading. An initiative of the South African Book Development Council, in partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, NBW was celebrated virtually from 07 to 13 September. The programme will re-run some of the most popular parts of its programme during the short school break. “With the national state of disaster extended to November 15 and many parents having returned to work in-office, we wanted…

By PEDRO MZILENI Makhanda resident Sive ‘Madala’ Gumenge recently argued in Grocott’s Mail (11 August 2020) that the recent collapses of the Eastern Cape local municipalities will negatively affect the education institutions in those regions. Specifically, he referred to the Amathole District Municipality where Alice is located and the Makana local municipality that hosts Makhanda, as two local government institutions faced with challenges of maladministration, corruption, and poor provision of basic services. Comrade Madala then goes further to underscore particularly the case of the University of Fort Hare that has found itself faced with the same challenges as that of…