By STAFF REPORTER The SAPS arrested two men in possession of over 600 kilograms of copper worth R84 000 in Makhanda on Tuesday, 20 October. According to SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Majola Nkohli, the arrests followed a morning raid of five local scrap metal dealers by police. Police found a stash of copper under piles of compressed aluminium bales in a dealership in Victoria Street. The dealership has been shut down. The confiscated copper is valued at around R 84 140. Among the seized items were pipes, taps, wiring and cables. The dealership owner and his assistant were arrested for contravening…
Author: Rod Amner
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Event: The Rev Kirkby Memorial Concert Venue: Kingswood College, City Lords Date and time: Sunday 31 October, 3.30 pm Tickets: R40 (children under 13 years: R20) The Reverend Howard Kirkby was a man who dedicated most of his life to Kingswood College. He was a long-serving teacher, chaplain and Kingswood Council member. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of music at the College. The Annual Memorial Concert named in Howard Kirkby’s honour serves as an active memorial to a great man. Join us for an afternoon filled with musical magic outdoors on City Lords field. Music by various ensembles. This…
By STAFF REPORTER Approved applicants of the special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress Grants have until 30 November to collect their unclaimed funds at the Post Office. Unclaimed grants were to be forfeited on 31 August 2021, but the deadline has been extended until the end of next month. The Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu announced the extension through the recently published Ministerial Directions. Payments not withdrawn by the end of November 2021 will be forfeited to the State to fund other government priorities. SASSA CEO Busisiwe Memela-Khambula, said, “It’s an early Christmas for the first cycle’s approved beneficiaries who…
By LOYISO DYONGMAN The Makana Citizens Front’s (MCF) Ward 4 candidate Philip Machanick said he was stunned to hear that completion of Phase 2 of the long-stalled James Kleynhas Water Treatment Works upgrade had been delayed again to June 2022. “We were promised in January 2019 that this project would be fast-tracked, after the previous attempt, starting in 2016, failed. But the end of 2019, only one of four phases had completed. Since then, we have been promised that the entire project would complete by October this year, then March 2022. Now this,” said Machanick. He said Phase 2 would…
By GEOFF EMBLING, DA candidate for Ward 4 Local government elections are about voting for the political party, bringing good governance and service delivery to your municipality. On the other hand, national elections are more about political ideology – voting for the party which will implement provincial and national policies that you would like to see. This is why some people vote for one political party in a national election and another in a local election. In the 2020/2021 financial year, a mere 27 out of 257 municipalities in South Africa received clean audits, and R26-billion of local government (municipal)…
STAFF REPORTER The Makana Municipality has scored a failing 43% in News24’s Out of Order index. The index allocates each of the 215 local municipalities and eight Metros a score on a scale from 0-100, where 0 is a ‘failure’, and 100 is ‘perfectly performing’. The average index score is 45% for all municipalities, indicating the national crisis in local government. Makana is one of 41 municipalities in the 41%-45% range and is listed as a ‘dysfunctional municipality’. A further 88 municipalities were rated worse than Makana (scoring between 26% and 40%). And a further 94 achieved scores of 46% and…
NOTE: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that two dogs tested by the Makhanda state vet both had rabies. Only the one dog, killed by lions at Amakhala, tested positive for rabies. Grocott’s Mail regrets the error. By CAITLYN HILLIARD-LOMAS The first case of canine rabies for several years has been confirmed in the Makana district. On 1 October, a field guide from Amakhala Private Game Reserve, 50km outside Makhanda, spotted a stray dog wandering near the public gravel road between Amakhala game reserve and the Conservation Department. Amakhala staff are unsure where the dog came from.…
Rhodes University’s award-winning community engagement programme, the Nine Tenths Matric Mentoring Programme, celebrated winning first in the MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship recently, beating over 388 universities in 77 countries. The University was awarded this prize earlier this year but due to COVID-19 disruptions were not able to celebrate with other prize run-ups. The celebration was the last leg of a week-long satellite conference on community engagement held in Bloemfontein. The prize-giving also served as an opportunity for the top three prize winners to discuss the value of global citizenship, strategic partnership, and the importance of community engagement projects. President…
By TEREZ CAIRNCROSS A group of dedicated women from the Bowker Street Baptist Church give up half a day once a week to cook and dish our soup to those in need of a warm and nutritious meal. Alerise May started the Bowker Street Baptist Church Soup Kitchen with her sister-in-law in 2016. She began with soup with bread and occasionally received food from the community kitchen, which allowed her to cook more extensive and more diverse batches. Unfortunately, as time went on, funds depleted. The pastor of the Bowker Street Baptist Church stepped in to help Alerise and her…
By RENEE MOYO What started as an endeavour to help a few of her neighbours quickly became a full-blown meal centre. Aunt Betty’s soup kitchen is now open to all community members, with people willing to travel on foot from informal settlements as far as Papamani. Betty explains how many families go without food for two to three days at a time. “When you go around the community, the yards look very clean, but if you go inside, you’ll find that it’s empty. There’s nothing in the house.” Her words paint a vivid picture of the reality in Makhanda. Although…