Author: Luvuyo Mjekula

By Luvuyo Mjekula A 31-year-old man appeared in the Makhanda High Court this week charged with raping 10 women and five girls in two Eastern Cape towns over a seven-year period. The Lesotho national, who resided in Addo, allegedly committed the rapes between October 2015 and December 2022 in Addo and Joubertina in the Sarah Baartman district. Of his 15 victims, five are girls aged between 13 and 17 years. In total, the man faces a total of 24 charges – 15 counts of rape, eight of robbery with aggravating circumstances and one of robbery. The state alleges that the…

By Nothando Yolanda Tshuma and Luvuyo Mjekula As provincial and local leaders of the Democratic Alliance crisscrossed Makhanda on an oversight visit-cum election campaign earlier this week, they came across two Scott’s Farm mothers who expressed strong views about service delivery and the party. One of the women, Verna Heywood, looked DA Eastern Cape leader Andrew Whitfield straight in the eye and told him: “The DA won this ward previously, but they did nothing for us.” Heywood said the biggest problems in her area included potholes, dysfunctional street lights, and a poorly maintained school, field and clinic. While agreeing with…

By Luvuyo Mjekula It has taken nearly 10 years, but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for hundreds of Alicedale learners who have been waiting for their crumbling school building to be reconstructed in a R50m government project. In a widely welcomed development this week, the contractor, Amajuda Civils, arrived in Alicedale and undertook to finally start work on the project. The learners also returned to school this week after local residents had sent them home and closed the school for a few days due to safety concerns brought about by lengthy delays in the…

By Staff Reporter The Democratic Alliance recently launched its elections manifesto in the Eastern Cape pledging to “urgently rescue this province from the spiralling crisis of hunger, poverty and the exploding cost of living, before it is too late”. “That is why the DA is here to launch our manifesto to rescue the Eastern Cape,” said party leader John Steenhuisen. With less than two months left until the national and provincial elections on 29 May, the country is abuzz with political party heavyweights zigzagging the length and breadth of the country trying to woo voters. The DA says it has…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Makana’s broken roads and infrastructure are in for a much-needed makeover after council this week approved spending R30m of grant funding on upgrading and surfacing the municipality’s internal roads and R9.2m on repairing those hit hard by floods in 2023. It was reported at a special council meeting on Wednesday that the municipality had secured a total of R69.2m in grant funding – an estimated R60m from the office of the premier, as part of the Small Towns Revitalisation Programme (STRP), and R9.2m under the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant. Council agreed that the lion’s share of the…

By Luvuyo Mjekula A Makhanda senior citizen celebrated his 97th birthday in official style on Wednesday with Makana Municipality councillors at a special council meeting. Before councillors drilled down into serious council business, mayor Yandiswa Vara welcomed special guest – Mntukanti July Sidina to the meeting, which coincided with his big day. He was accompanied by his family and church leaders. Introducing the elderly resident, Vara said he had never set foot in a municipal council meeting, in all of his near century-long life. He certainly achieved the milestone on Wednesday. Vara lauded Sidina’s courage despite his old age. Flanked…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Supporters of murder-accused former Makana Municipality councillor Luyanda Sakata and one of his three co-accused, Mphitizeli Diko, left the Makhanda Magistrate’s Court bitterly disappointed after the duo were refused bail on Friday. The release of their two other co-accused, Xolisile Mlatsha and Vuyo Madinda, did, however, bring some joy to the group of supporters. Sakata, 42, Diko, 63, Mlatsha, 54, and Madinda, 42, are all charged with beating Siviwe Sajini, a 34-year-old man, with sticks and steel pipes, in a mob assault in Ethembeni Location in March 2023. Sajini died in hospital from a head injury due…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Many factors could lead a mother to do the unthinkable – abandon or harm her newborn baby. She could be suffering from “the baby blues” or postpartum depression. According to social worker and founder of Eyam Consultancy in Makhanda, Nomonde Stamper, bringing and raising a child is a mutual commitment between the mother and the father. It involves two mature, stable and financially secure adults as well as lots of planning before the child is born. “But when this does not happen, everything falls apart,” she warns. She says in some instances, the teenager, child or adult…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Former Makana Municipality ward councillor Luyanda Sakata and three other men – all charged with murder – are due to appear in the Makhanda Magistrate’s Court for a formal bail application today (Friday). The bail hearing was due to proceed on Wednesday but had to be postponed because there was no water at the local court. The presiding magistrate cited “infrastructure problems” as his reason for postponing the matter but also noted that there was no interpreter present in court. This, the magistrate said, was an essential element of the case as it had the potential to…

By Luvuyo Mjekula and Rikie Lai Following the discovery of E. coli in water samples from three communal areas in Makhanda, the Makana Municipality recently went on a programme to mitigate the potential danger. A team from the municipality cleaned and disinfected the affected areas while sharing information with the local communities. Joza Clinic, the military base and the municipality’s own environmental health office were the three places whose water samples were found to contain high levels of E. coli. E. coli is a type of bacteria that usually lives in the intestines of humans. It is also found in…