Author: Grocott's Mail Contributors

Those who observe Lent during these days, or just think about the meaning of Easter, which is only four weeks away, might find some food for thought in the following words from Philippians 2:  “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. “Each of you should look…

The imbongi is concern about the scarcity of water and load shedding that the people are experiencing. Now corona virus seems to be close to our door steps and bombard it water is best weapon. Education has been affected by this too Kophendula banina ke ingenguwe waziyo? Besisahleli ngamxhelo mnye Sibaliselana iimbadu ngase buhlanti Sisitsho ngeentsomi zethu Sisothe iimbawula zethu Singaphanganga mntu wethu Siqale sabona ngobuqhophololo bokungaphumi kwamanz’ ezimpompeni Sadl’amathamb’ engqondo kwaqhekeka iintloko Kwanzima nokusul’ iintongo Senjenjeya ukuquqela kwiimpompi ezikude Nala wendalo amanzi asinqabela Kwanyanzeleka siwafumane ngexabiso Wasitsho elukhakhayini yena uEskom Samayamayaza saphithizela siqoshelis’ ezexabiso Samkelwa ziinkomo neebhokhwe ngobusuku Sahluthelwa…

Dear Makanda residents As we are all aware, we are experiencing the carona pandemic in our country and beyond, and we acknowledge the lockdown as announced by the President of our country. As a result, being an essential service, and failing any direction given to us by the Department of Social Development, our office has come up with a plan to protect our staff and beneficiaries. The office will be closed, but we will have a standby social worker, who will work remotely from home, to attend to any queries, counselling, etc. She can be reached on 060 3777 289. We have…

Good Old Grahamstown Our grass here in Grahamstown may not always be green But there’s so much more here than is at first seen You need not look far to find your desire It’s right on our doorstep, I am no liar OK, so the potholes are a pain… but they can be filled The municipality may be lacking… but they could be upskilled The cattle have character and the donkeys are sweet We just need to take care and watch where putting our feet The rubbish is an issue, flying in the air But we can all help with…

By KELLY BARNARD While most of the transient Makhanda population left our small city to take a much needed yearly break, some other more unusual visitors decided to grace our shores and excite many a twitcher from near and far. A twitcher is someone who is invested in tallying up new birds that they haven’t seen yet, in places that they haven’t seen them. The first rare bird to start the flurry of rarities to our area was seen on 8 December 2019. It was the Spur-winged Lapwing, whom, “even more weirdly” according to local twitcher, Lynette Rudman, is still…

By MANDISI MAJAVU and ANNA MAJAVU It has been said that there comes a time when a political detour from a democratic transition ceases to be a detour, but becomes a permanent post-colonial nightmare. Makana Municipality has reached this point of no return. The African National Congress (ANC) commissars running the Makana have managed to do the impossible – turn a town into a “stinking corpse”, to use Rosa Luxemburg’s phrase. The judge who ruled that the municipality be dissolved characterised the commissars in charge of the municipality as having failed to promote a healthy and sustainable environment for the…

Dear Residents Makana Municipality launched four water and sewer related infrastructure projects. These are: a) Upgrade of Mayfield Outfall Sewer b) Belmont Valley WWTW Repair Works c)  Refurbishment of Jamieson and Milner Dams d) Asbestos pipe replacement Below are the time frames and costs of the projects. PROJECT NAME START DATE END DATE AMOUNT 1. Upgrade of Mayfield Outfall Sewer February 2020 January 2021 R22,638,767.75 2. Belmont Valley WWTW Repair Works February 2020 June 2021 R22,409,072.50 3. Refurbishment of Jameson and Milner dams January 2020 June 2020 R10,000,000.00 4. Asbestos pipe replacement February 2020 January 2021 R…

The SPCA has opened a charity shop and I, in my retirement, have found it so satisfying to contribute to its success. I spend just a couple of hours there on a few days each week and: meet new people, do simple jobs like accepting donations, pricing items and processing the sales of the articles that customers purchase. It is a charity shop that accepts any items that the public donate so there are such a variety of things to choose from in the shop. It is fun to get out again and meet new people, your co-workers in the…

RANDS AND SENSE – Personal Finance The debilitating effect of load shedding, horrendous revelations about state-capture and utterances by populist politicians may cause even the most patriotic South Africans to invest as much of their wealth as possible offshore rather than in the local economy. However, when it comes to investing offshore, there are other serious challenges to consider such as trade wars, Brexit and the possibility of the Coronavirus becoming a global pandemic. The correct approach is to try to remove emotion from any investment decision and instead focus on growing a suitably diversified portfolio of investments. A question…

By Roger Rowswell with contributions by Mike Palmer, Jim Cambray and Pat Irwin Recently, I received a copy of an edict/notice put out by the Port Elizabeth Meteorological Office, indicating that a 100-year flood was on the cards in the near future. This is an event I have anticipated for a while, but had not fully explored the probability. After some digging, it became clear to me that, based on the cyclical nature of weather, there are indeed promising signs that our drought will soon be over. Flood of 1823 The earliest recorded instance of a heavier-than-average rainfall in Makhanda…