Author: Luvuyo Mjekula

By Luvuyo Mjekula Makana Municipality mayor Yandiswa Vara yesterday dismissed “incorrect” public statements about R60.7m in unspent conditional grant funds the National Treasury indicated it would take back from the troubled institution. “[The issue of the R60m] is being interpreted incorrectly,” Vara told the audience at a mayoral imbizo on the 2024-2025 Integrated Development Plan Review at the City Hall on Thursday evening. It had been widely reported recently that the National Treasury had instructed the municipality to return the “unspent” money. In a statement, the Rhodes University-based Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) and the Action for Accountability (A4A) project…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Two Eastern Cape men are due to appear in the Makhanda High Court on Friday, facing multiple charges, including murder and attempted murder, relating to cash-in-transit robberies in various locations between July 2021 and March 2022. Lwando Ntiyantiya, 35, from Komani and Nkosekhaya Lloyd, 37, from East London, along with other unknown people, allegedly targeted security officers transporting cash and robbed them of money and firearms. In July 2021, they robbed a Red Guard security officer transporting cash to a Whittlesea cash loan business from the bank and made off with more than R400 000 and the…

By Luvuyo Mjekula A 34-year-old parolee charged with eight counts of rape, involving minor children, has been referred to a professional for mental examination. Magistrate Xoliswa Msesiwe ruled, last week, that the man would remain in custody so as to undergo initial assessment by a psychiatrist, apparently from the Justice department. The Extension 10 resident, who cannot be named because he has not pleaded, appeared in court on Friday last week for a formal bail application. However, his Legal Aid attorney told the court he was having trouble consulting with his client and asked the court to make an order…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Following recent reports of an alleged serial rapist on the loose in Makhanda, a 34-year-old man appeared in the local magistrate’s court this week facing multiple rape charges dating back to January 2022 and involving eight victims aged between five and 47 years old. Grocott’s Mail reported last week that on Grahamstown Anti-Crime neighbourhood watch’s Facebook posts, it was alleged that a convict, out on parole, had raped seven children between the ages of five and eight years old that previous week and, according to community members, had not been arrested for the recent cases of alleged…

By Luvuyo Mjekula Five prisoners rearrested after escaping from Makhanda’s Correctional Service Centre in October last year appeared briefly in the local magistrate’s court earlier today, Thursday, 09 November, escorted by heavily armed security officers. The Zimbabwean nationals – Simba Masinga, Trymore Chauke, Abraham Moyane, Francis Chitiyo and Nhamo Muyambo, faced escaping charges stemming from their daring prison break in October last year. The five were part of a group of seven men who escaped from the Waainek correctional facility. Masinga, Chauke, Moyane, Muyambo and Chitiyo were awaiting sentencing after being convicted of rhino poaching. They killed 13 rhinos between…