Author: Sue Maclennan

Makana Fire Station’s Commander Vuyokazi Sam says residents and businesses should be extra careful with electrical appliances before and after loadshedding. She was speaking to Grocott’s Mail after a fire caused by an overheated fan at a Somerset Heights home was spotted and extinguished before it could cause serious damage. Sam said on Wednesday 5 February, around 1pm, a resident called to report smoke coming from the garage of a Glastonbury Road home. “A crew responded immediately with a vehicle and a water tanker,” Sam said. “It turned out that the resident had left a fan running in the garage.…

Damage done as the drought deepened in last six months of 2019 means much more rain is needed in the Kariega River catchment before dams downstream start filling up, say farmers in the area. That’s despite the fact that record keepers indicate January 2020 has been the wettest January for that area since 1956, and the all-time highest for Makhanda. Makhanda’s water shortage is caused in part by drought, which has depleted dams that normally supply the west of the town. Settlers and Howieson’s Poort dams are in the Kariega River catchment and are the main supply dams feeding Grahamstown…

While extraordinary weather on Tuesday and Wednesday nights brought welcome rain to town, the lightning storm started a fire that destroyed grazing as well as tens of thousands of rands worth of fencing at the Hoole family farm, Mitford Park, outside Riebeeck East. The lightning struck on the mountain some time on Tuesday night and because the family and staff were indoors, it was only much later they noticed it. “Besides the veld, there’s a lot of fencing that’s been destroyed,” Bryan Hoole told Grocott’s Mail the next day. Replacing that would cost tens of thousands of rands, he said.…

The Unemployed People’s Movement is considering contempt of court proceedings against the Premier and his co-respondents following their failure to execute the 14 January High Court order to dissolve the Makana Council and put the municipality under administration. Meanwhile, lawyers for the four provincial respondents have countered with an application for leave to appeal Judge Igna Stretch’s ruling. Both documents are dated 31 January. The ruling handed down in the high court in Makhanda declared Makana Municipality non-functional in terms of administrative functioning and service delivery and therefore invalid. A letter to the Province’s lawyers from the UPM’s lawyer Brin…

Dog owners in Sevenfountains want answers about the deaths of a number of dogs there last week. While some community members said at least 25 dogs had died in the village, the SPCA found only four bodies. Residents believe the dogs were poisoned; however, the SPCA has cautioned that this can only be confirmed through a post-mortem. Sevenfountains resident Nosimphiwe Nkumanda said she was resting around 5pm on Wednesday 22 January when her 6-year-old daughter, in tears, ran to call her. Their two-year-old Alsatian-crossbreed dog was running desperately around the house, throwing herself against the walls and screaming in pain.…

In a relatively quick turnaround time, a former research assistant was this week sentenced to an effective 18 years imprisonment for the murder of Makhanda resident Tulani Tambo, just five months after the incident. In the High Court in Makhanda, Judge J Rugunanan on Wednesday 29 January sentenced Odwa Rala to five years for housebreaking with intent to commit murder, 18 years for murder and six years for attempted murder. The judge ruled that the first and third sentences would run concurrently. The murder took place on 11 August 2019 at Tambo’s home. Rala, 28, broke into Tambo’s home that…

Around 85 tons of animal feed and several truckloads of lucerne arrived in Makhanda this week as drought-relief aid for 64 farmers in the area. While the town and surrounding farms have enjoyed significant rainfall this month and there is now good grazing, farmers nevertheless welcomed the supplies and lined up in mud-painted bakkies at the old golf course to load up maize, lucerne pellets and molasses meal. At the other side of town, at the State Vet, members of the Makana Emerging Farmers Association were likewise presenting their branding certificates and ID documents to have allocations of lucerne bales…

The Unemployed People’s Movement and opposition parties have responded scathingly this week to moves to appeal this month’s high court judgment declaring Makana Municipality invalid. Predictions proved true when a statement issued early Thursday morning confirmed that the provincial government will appeal the order for its Executive Council to dissolve the Makana Council and put the municipality under administration. Barely an hour later, in Makana’s first full council sitting of the year, councillors voted 15 to 9 to appeal the judgment. Judge Igna Stretch’s ruling handed down in the high court in Makhanda on 14 January 2020  declared Makana Municipality non-functional in…

Gloria Papu stands at the Jarvis Street driffie that she’s been cleaning up along with fellow residents Helen Holleman and Ntombomzi Monakale. Many individuals and businesses, as well as Makana Municipality, have lent a hand in this labour of love which almost came to naught when heavy rain threatened to wash tons of plastic from an abandoned recycling depot back into the river. The site’s former operator has now returned and is in the process of sorting and removing the mostly plastic waste. Like her fellow eco-heroes, Papu has pleaded for residents not to throw their rubbish from their car…

The Eastern Cape Provincial government has confirmed it will appeal the judgment ordering its Executive Council to dissolve the Makana Council and put the municipality under administration. The announcement was made via a media release this morning 30 January 2020, an hour before the Makana Council opened its first full council meeting of the year and councillors voted 15 to 9 to appeal the judgment. The voting was done during a confidential session. The DA (seven councillors) and the EFF (two councillors) have previously stated their support for the judgment and their opposition to the move to appeal it. Judge Igna Stretch’s…