Political posters around Rhodes University campus urge local voters to keep their ward DA. The party won Ward 12 in the last municipal elections in 2016, but the seat became vacant when Councillor, Darryn Brian Holm, announced his resignation. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) then determined that a by-election will be held on August 7 to find his replacement. The campaign currently under way to decide who will take up the Ward 12 seat in the Makana Council is a closely fought race. The three candidates contesting the by-election next Wednesday are Mzobanzi Nkwentsha for the ANC, Angi Jones for…
Author: Steven Lang
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There are three candidates for the Ward 12 by-elections set to take place in Makana municipality on August 7. The candidates are Mzobanzi Nkwentsha for the ANC, Angi Jones for the DA and Simphiwe Mbonda for the EFF. The by-election in Ward 12, with Rhodes University at its core, was prompted by the resignation of DA Councillor Darryn Brian Holm. Campaigning has already erupted into fierce words as the DA’s Shadow Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Kevin Mileham, accused Rhodes University of political intolerance. In a letter to the editor of this newspaper, he alleged that the DA’s public…
There are three amazing things about this wonderful account of the Moon landing 50 years ago. The first is the event itself, of course. But then there’s the fact that this world-changing event was experienced by a family huddled around a crackling transistor radio. And then there’s the wonderful shoebox that Steven Lang has kept the clippings in for 50 years. Almost too anxious to breathe, my family huddled around the transistor radio as every few seconds a high pitched beep punctuated the muffled speech that held an entire planet in awe. American astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin guided…
Review by STEVEN LANG Fishes of Southern African Estuaries is a complete encyclopaedia about everything that anyone could ever hope to know about Southern African estuaries. It is plainly written for academics or students studying estuarine fish in particular, or ichthyology in general, rather than for fishermen who like to go angling in estuaries. It is a major work revising and expanding on Prof Alan Whitfield’s earlier monograph published in 1998. The book is large, printed on almost 500 pages of high-quality, A4 sized paper and requires two hands to carry it. An estuary is a semi-enclosed body of water where…
“We cannot afford a single breakdown” said Chris Nair Area, Operations Manager of Amatola Water, as he described the precarious Heath Robinson water-supply system of Makhanda. More than 70 people crowded into the Grahamstown Bowling Club to hear him speak on the parlous state of the bulk water supply system. He was the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Grahamstown Residents Association (GRA) on Wednesday evening when he gave residents a status report of bulk water supplies in the Makana Municipal area. He said that there will be no ‘day-zero’ when the taps will dry up, but…
The Rhodes University community began its celebrations of International Week with a colourful parade on Saturday morning. Close to 200 students carrying flags of many different countries paraded from the Stephen Biko building on campus into town in a display aimed at embracing diversity. As to be expected, there were far more South Africans than representatives from other countries so in the parade they proudly displayed quite a few foreign flags. Rhodes says that over 86 countries are represented at the university underlining its claim at being a truly international university. The week will include an inaugural summit of “SADC:…
Spin doctors in the major parties are working overtime trying to put a positive spin on last week’s national and provincial elections. Famously, African National Congress (ANC) election head, Fikile Mbalula said the ruling party avoided ‘a slaughter’ at the polls in part thanks to party leader Cyril Ramaphosa. It was easy to make such a statement because it cannot be tested so we don’t know if it might have been true or not, but many analysts would agree that the President probably boosted the ANC’s performance. The sub-text is that Ramaphosa appears to have salvaged some of the party’s…
Party Name Number of Votes Percentage of total Percentage in 2014 African National Congress 17,218 63.09 68.5 Democratic Alliance 6,135 22.48 21.92 Economic Freedom Fighters 2,446 8.96 3.69 Azanian People’s Organisation 198 0.73 0.81 African Christian Democratic Party 155 0.57 0.42 African Transformation Movement 126 0.46 n/a The story of this year’s election results in Makana is quite simple. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) gained just over five percent and the African National Congress (ANC) lost almost the same percentage. The second largest party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) marginally increased its share of the pie between the two elections.…
A little mark on your left thumbnail, made with indelible ink to show that you have voted, has been the focus of controversies in the current elections. One aspect of the notorious mark is whether it is OK or not to have manicured, or false nails. Social media, as always, picked up on the issue and relayed stories about people who were not allowed to vote because of their fake nails. Some were supposedly told to pull, or scratch the nails off; while others pointed out that you could still have the mark on your cuticle even with false nails.…
Provincial Electoral Officer, Kayakazi Magudumana said in East London this afternoon that on day two of special voting, IEC officials experienced fewer glitches than on the first day. There were however community protests at two voting stations, one in the Tabankulu area and the other in Bizana. She said that if the officials are unable to do their visits today, those who had received special permission are allowed to vote tomorrow at the relevant voting stations. Magudumana said the IEC has done everything possible to make sure that all those who requested special votes had been attended to, “but the…