By Luvuyo Mjekula The Auditor General (AG) slapped Makana Local Municipality with a fourth straight disclaimer audit opinion this week, citing a culture of non-accountability, non-reporting, no progress and a lack of processes in the system. The AG said, as it is, the municipality cannot be trusted with money. Having to audit the municipality’s financial statements comprising its financial position as at 30 June 2023; financial performance; changes in net assets; cash flow statement and the statement of comparison of budget and actual amounts for the year that ended; as well as the notes to the financial statements, including a…
Author: Luvuyo Mjekula
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By Luvuyo Mjekula The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape has vowed to get to the bottom of the water crisis plaguing the community of Makhanda in the Makana Municipality. On Tuesday, 9 January, DA provincial leader and member of parliament Andrew Whitfield led a team of various party leaders and councillors on an oversight inspection of water infrastructure in Makhanda. Frontier Constituency leader and member of parliament Kevin Mileham, DA Cogta shadow MEC Vicky Knoetze and local councillors Luvuyo Sizani and Cary Clarke joined Whitfield. In a statement released prior to the inspection, the party expressed its determination to…
By Luvuyo Mjekula Accused of destroying solid and longstanding infrastructure of a town built more than 200 years ago, Makana Municipality mayor Yandiswa Vara hit back at her critics last week. “Two hundred years ago, this municipality was built for one section of the town. Now, the capacity cannot meet the demand. We did not mess up the infrastructure of this town,” she said emphatically. Earlier, Makhanda residents had taken turns throwing strong accusations at Vara and her eight councillors during her mayoral imbizo at City Hall on Thursday last week. A local advocate even called on the mayor and…
By Luvuyo Mjekula The community hall in Extension 9 was packed on Tuesday, 5 December, as government officials, anti-GBV activists, and ordinary residents thrashed out issues adversely affecting the community. Residents from Nkanini, a newly formed informal settlement, were particularly invited to the event but were joined by others from areas in the broader Joza Township, which includes Thatha, Phumlani, Transit Camp, extensions 4, 5, 9 and 10. Social workers, police officers, nurses and other health officials, correctional services officials, municipal employees and officials from departments including community safety and sport, arts and culture heard first-hand the challenges many communities…
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…