By Staff Reporter The Democratic Alliance in Makana has once again called for the dissolution of the Makana Municipal Council after the party walked out of a special council meeting meant to discuss the important item of the adjustment budget last week due to the late distribution of agendas. According to a media statement from the DA, the agenda for the special council meeting that sat on 28 February 2024 was distributed late to councillors – a day before the meeting. As a result, councillors did not have sufficient time to properly consider and interrogate the agenda, the statement said.…
Author: Luvuyo Mjekula
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By Luvuyo Mjekula The state has asked for lengthy sentences for three men who pleaded guilty and were convicted in a case classified by a senior Makhanda advocate as “evil”. The three men were found guilty of various charges related to the gruesome killing of two women – Zoleka Gantana, 56, a Kidd’s Beach spaza shop owner and her assistant Kholosa Mpunga, 27, in July last year. The court heard that five men entered Gantana’s shop on 8 July 2023 and, armed with a firearm, forced the two women on the floor and tied their hands with cable ties. They…
By Luvuyo Mjekula People from all walks of life attended Makhanda activist Ayanda Kota’s memorial service on Wednesday. From religious and political leaders to representatives from educational institutions, civic associations and the sporting fraternity. Scores of ordinary members of the community were also present, joined by members of Kota’s Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) and Makana Citizens Front (MCF). All packed the Ethiopian Episcopal Church in Raglan Road. Their message was unequivocal: Kota’s legacy will live on. “We are saying the role [Kota] played for Makhanda’s community, we will continue to play. We will carry on with the struggle the way…
By Luvuyo Mjekula “I am who I am today because of Ayanda Kota.” This was a common statement among Makhanda residents who gathered at Kota’s Joza home for a community prayer on Sunday. “I am where I am because of Ayanda. If Ayanda was not in Makhanda, I am not afraid to say I would not be a PR councillor,” said Reverend Milo Geelbooi. Geelbooi told the gathering that even if Kota did not have money, he made means to provide food to the hungry. “I thank God for his life. We still needed him in our lives,” he said.…
By Luvuyo Mjekula An Extension 6 man accused of repeatedly raping his 12-year-old stepdaughter and threatening to feed her mother and siblings rat poison if she reported what had happened to her to anyone has been denied bail. The 46-year-old appeared for a formal bail hearing in the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. Charged with three counts of rape, the man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his stepdaughter, allegedly first raped her in their Extension 7 home between May and June 2020. This after he dragged her into his bedroom after she had ignored his instruction…
By Luvuyo Mjekula Four Makhanda residents arrested for allegedly brutally beating two men, killing one of them, are seeking bail in the local magistrate’s court. Ntombekhaya Jacobs, 49, Sibongile Moses, 25, Masixole Siko, 25 and Masixole Ralo, also in his 20s, appeared for a formal bail application on Thursday. They have been charged with murder and attempted murder. The four are accused of beating 32-year-old Zandile Sandi and Mandilakhe Royi, near Polar Park informal settlement on 5 February, apparently after the two were accused of stealing a pair of shoes. The incident was suspected to be motivated by mob justice.…
By Luvuyo Mjekula Some residents of Ward 2 in Joza recently threatened to halt a road-repair project in the area, claiming they were excluded by the powers that be. Led by local leaders of ActionSA, the small group of residents demonstrated with placards at the site last week, threatening to shut down the project and demanding the presence of ward councillor, Ramie Xonxa. An angry Blondie Mdoko, a contractor and owner of Buhlumuzi Trading (Pty) Ltd in Ward 2, said she has been out of business for the past three years because she has been excluded from previous projects and…
By Luvuyo Mjekula An association of renowned game reserves, including Shamwari, Kwandwe, Lalibela and Kariega, has warned that inappropriately placed wind farms in the Eastern Cape, such as the proposed Albany Wind Farm immediately adjacent to Makhanda, are a threat to biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, conservation and tourism. The Indalo Private Game Reserve Association has launched an impassioned campaign to challenge the “misplaced wind farms endangering the very fabric of this historic town [of Makhanda] and the region”. “The call is clear: protect our heritage, preserve our biodiversity, and stand against the ecological injustice unfolding in our midst,” reads a statement…
By Luvuyo Mjekula Instead of being mocked on social media, police officers should be respected and appreciated, as thousands leave their families to put their lives on the line. These were the words of Grahamstown High Court judge John Smith as he sentenced two men who shot and paralysed an East London police officer and narrowly missed a private security officer in a brazen attack on 23 November 2021. “It has regrettably become fashionable to criticise and even mock police officers based on anecdotal evidence and speculation in the social media. Yet every day – and night, for that matter…
By Luvuyo Mjekula In a mob justice-inspired beating, a group of angry residents assaulted two boys aged 11 and 14 years and slapped and tied up the younger boy’s 18-year-old sibling – over a pair of white Puma socks. The angry mob inflicted the attacks on the morning of Saturday, 3 February, first in Xolani Location and then in N Street. According to a Xolani resident, the 11-year-old boy was head-butted by a man in his 30s, trampled on and left with a swollen face, while the 14-year-old sustained an injury to his ankle after being struck with a stick.…