Author: Sue Maclennan

Caltex Grahamstown sponsored a Children’s Charity Run on Sunday 11 November. Motocyclists from across the district and some from as far afield as Mpumalanga gathered at the Monument at 10.30am before roaring off in an impressive convoy to the Albany Sports Club, where R20 plus a toy for charity got them a rally badge plus entry to braai and bar facilities at the club. Photos by Sue Maclennan

The Grahamstown Business Forum says it will closely monitor the case by a group of Queenstown businesses that have sought to have the local municipality’s electricity account ring-fenced for electricity payments. This follows an interdict issued in the High Court in Makhanda (Grahamstown) on Tuesday 20 November halting Eskom’s threat to cut electricity to the Enoch Mgijima Municipality. Makhanda (Grahamstown) based law firm Wheeldon Rushmere & Cole Incorporated this week announced that their interdict on behalf of a group of Queenstown businesses had successfully blocked Eskom from implementing electricity cuts that were due to start there on Tuesday 20 November…

On Thursday 15 November the Grade 10 pupils from St Andrew’s College and Diocesan School for Girls gathered on Lower Field to start their ‘Journey’ – a twenty-one-day expedition following the Fish River from its source to its mouth at the coast. During their journey, the pupils will traverse about 330km by means of hiking, cycling, canoeing and running. They carry everything they need for the journey themselves and have to deal with whatever adverse weather conditions come their way. Every young person faces challenges of some sort or another during their journey and they are exposed to calculated risks,…

The Department of Water and Sanitation says the country’s water resources could halve, as the heatwave continues to affect dam levels. “The heatwave in most parts of South Africa is reducing dam levels at an alarming rate and there are fears that unless it starts raining heavily, the country may end up with half the water resources it has currently,” the department said. According to the department’s report released on Wednesday, the country’s dam levels dropped by 0.8% to 70.5% this week. This week temperatures soared to the mid-40s and mid-30s in Northern Cape and Gauteng respectively, and this has…

The Department of Home Affairs has encouraged Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) applicants to collect their outcomes from their nearest Visa Facilitation Service (VFS) Global permit centres. The department announced on Thursday that it has completed the adjudication and printing of 178 172 applications for the ZEP. The opening of the new ZEP was announced on 8 September 2017, following the expiry of the Zimbabwean Special Permit (ZSP). The application process for the ZEP project, which started on 15 September 2017, is meant to regularise the stay of Zimbabwean nationals in South Africa for work, study or legal business. More than…

Provincial Chairperson Oscar Mabuyane and members of the Regional Working Committee will meet with ANC councillors in Makhanda (Grahamstown) on Monday 19 November, according to REC secretary Johannes Hobbs. However, regional and local leadership have remained tight-lipped about a possible palace revolution. Rumours of a reshuffle of Council’s Executive following a particularly bad week for the party’s Makana Subregion were part of the build-up to Wednesday’s general membership imbizo at BB Zondani Hall in Fingo. The top-three executive of the ANC-led Council comprises Nomhle Gaga (Executive Mayor), Yandiswa Vara (Speaker) and Mahbuti Matyumza (Chief Whip). Factions within Makana’s 17-member ANC…

Head and Curator of the Albany Museum’s History Department Gcobisa Zomelele located coverage by the local press of the end of World War 1. Grocott’s Penny Mail on Monday 11 November 1918 carried the main headline: ‘Under the White Flag’ – with ‘The Fateful Hour’ – Foch and the Germans/ Two alternatives: surrender or defeat/ Disaster near at hand. It took two or three days for news from Europe and England to make its way on to the pages of the local press. A bulletin datelined London, Nov. 8, read: An afternoon wireless French official statement announces that the German…

Service delivery protests reflect severe weaknesses in local governance, poor consultation with communities and a perceived distance between communities and their public representatives, says President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said the  government had adopted a multi-disciplinary and systemic approach to tackle service delivery protests. The President was fielding oral questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday in response to a question from United Democratic Movement (UDM) President Bantu Holomisa. Holomisa had asked the President whether he had any plans to coordinate the entire government machinery to visit affected communities to present them with detailed responses to their concerns. “If we are to effectively…

Cogta Minister Zweli Mkhize has seen the call for the Makana Council to be put under administration and will consider returning to Makhanda (Grahamstown) to address the community, his spokesperson Musa Zondi told Grocott’s Mail  yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile an ANC meeting in BB Zondani Hall this morning is unrelated to the 20 758-signature petition delivered during a march to the Makana City Hall and Cogta’s Bhisho offices last week, insiders say. The petition calls for Section 139(1)(c) administration by the Province, citing administrative, environmental and infrastructural failures. Rumours of a palace revolution have been laughed off, although a high-level deployment of…

Historian Fleur Way-Jones describes how residents of Grahamstown experienced the end of World War 1. The Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918; on 15 November an Armistice Day service was held on Church Square. The Great War had ended. Bonfires lit up the skies on Armistice Day. Christmas would be celebrated in peacetime again. By August 1919 most Union contingents on imperial service had returned to South Africa. Grahamstown was exhausted after the Spanish Flu epidemic and was counting its losses. What Grahamstown never anticipated was that the joy of returning soldiers would bring a health threat in the…