Author: Sue Maclennan

Stirring poetry from Makhanda (Grahamstown) poets Dumisa Mpupha and Harry Owen provided an inspiring start and ending to the festive prizegiving in the WESSA Heritage Day Photographic Competition on Wednesday 10 October. Close to 70 photographers, from beginner to professional, entered the inaugural competition with the theme ‘Celebrate Natural Heritage’. With more than 30 in the amateur category alone, the judges had some tough choices to make and this week the winners were announced as follows: SCHOOLS Carissa Henning (Frog Prince) Kate Jackson-Moss (Queen of the Savannah) Liyema Blom (Orange Pride) AMATEUR Chad Keates (Young Beauty) Graham Barr…

How do young people in Makana experience public health? is the question we’re asking in the next edition of #TheDebate2019 in BB Zondani Hall on Wednesday 24 October at 6pm. Talking about their experience of working with young people in our town will be representatives from local NGO Raphael Centre and national NGO the Rural Health Action Project, with input from UPSTART Youth and local health practitioners. And there to answer tough questions will be Health Superintendent General for the Eastern Cape Dr Thobile Mbengashe, who yesterday confirmed his participation in the 24 October edition of The Debate. Some of…

A petition calling on the Eastern Cape Provincial Executive to dissolve the Makana Municipal Council and appoint an administrator, and to divert rates, had by midday Thursday 11 October received 5633 signatures and was growing at a rate of 100 a day. Social media and design wizzes Robyn Cooper and Robyn Oosthuysen last Monday posted a video made in collaboration with fellow resident Daphne Timm, showing potholed roads, illegal dumping and stray animals. Speakers on the video highlight administrative, environmental and infrastructural failures in the municipality. On the video, Timm says, “There have been endless talkshops over the past five…

Mass action and mobilisation is essential for social justice was the message of academic, activist and political commentator Adam Habib at Kingswood College’s Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture on 27 September. The school hosts the lecture annually in honour of former pupil who died as an activist in the anti-apartheid struggle. Habib used his experience of the Fees Must Fall struggle to illustrate the power of social activism. “In 10 days the students achieved what vice chancellors had been trying to do for the past 10 years,” he said, describing the pressure on tertiary institutions as their mandate grew, while state…

Harness the energy, experience and talents of an artist, a scientist and a teacher – all from the Lower Albany – and the result is a book: LA LORE II … and more. The book is a collaboration between Brian ‘Bugs’ Wilmot, Quentin Hogge and Basil Mills. The book is a compilation of over 40 stories from that unique spot on God’s earth, the Lower Albany. This is the area from Grahamstown via Bathurst to Port Alfred. From the Great Fish River to the equally great Bushman’s River and the farms in between. There are excursions to Hell’s Poort and…

The DA has called on Makana’s Mayor Nomhle Gaga to act with speed to pay Eskom and implement a Council resolution to ring-fence all electricity revenue. This comes after Makhanda (Grahamstown) brought to 39 the number of South African towns facing disconnection by the power utility. In a notice published in a regional newspaper on 11 October 2018, Eskom says it intends to impose power cuts on Makana Municipality at the start of the Festive Season, continuing indefinitely because of Makana’s outstanding debt of R67 539 876.39. In the first week this will be 6am-9am and 5pm to 8.30pm Monday to Friday,…

In order to self correct, the ANC would have to get rid of 85% of its current leadership. “We are governed by the psychologically defeated,” Makhosi Khoza told the audience at the Archbishop Thabo Mokgoba Development Trust Annual Lecture at Rhodes University on Monday 1 October. Khoza’s no-holds-barred take on getting education right, sorting out local government, working with not against civil society and holding the Constitution as a moral reference point were themes that confirmed Khoza’s reputation for facing off with sacred cows. The annual event with the theme of values based leadership is hosted by the Business School…

Striking SASSA staff affiliated to the National Health and Allied Workers Union will return to work on Monday. This comes after agreement was reached between the union and Minister of Social Development  Susan Shabangu on 10 October, hours after staff at SASSA office across the country commenced what they said would be a total shutdown. Nehawu announced the strike on Monday, saying it was as a result of SASSA management’s refusal to resolve the challenges brought about by the migration of the Social Grant Payment System from Cash Paymaster Services [CPS] to the South African Post Office [SAPO]. In the statement posted on…

From 1 October 2018, the Joza Clinic has extended its opening hours. Open to the public Monday to Friday, 8am to 4.30pm, the clinic will now be open on Saturdays, Sunday and public holidays. The opening hours will remain the same. Ward 2 councillor Ramie Xonxa said negotiations with the Department of Health over several months followed a plea from the clinic committee on behalf of the public for easier access to medical help over the weekends. “Research at the [Cobden Street] Day Hospital showed that most people going there during the weekends are from Joza,” Xonxa told Grocott’s Mail.…

Makana Mayor Nomhle Gaga has welcomed the change of the city’s name from Grahamstown to Makhanda and says the municipality will conduct public consultations to unite residents around it. This week Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa announced that he had made his final decision on the gazetted name change of Grahamstown to Makhanda. In a media release, Mthethwa said that following a “thorough, assiduous and painstaking process” he had found no just cause to withdraw the notice published in the Government Gazette on 29 June 2018. “As such the proclamation as published in the Government Gazette in question…