Author: Sue Maclennan

A truck driver seeing the rocks and burning tyres of protesters outside the Makana Electricity Department at the top end of Trollope Street tried to turn around just above Sun City on Tuesday 12 June. The road was blocked for around an hour as he battled to first free the truck, drive it around and reconnect to the trailer. He was on his way to Makana Brick. “I saw the toyi toyi,” he said. Not knowing the mood or intentions of the protesters he’d tried to turn quickly and got stuck. Photo: Sue Maclennan

With just two weeks to go to the 2018 edition of the National Arts Festival, Thembinkosi ‘Tbag’ Mdyogolo of the Makana Traffic Department paints road-marking lines on Somerset Street opposite the Drostdy Arch on Thursday 14 June. Work is under way to spruce up the city ahead of the 11-day event which begins on 28 June and ends Sunday 8 July. With performances, lectures, exhibitions and workshops across 90 venues, it is Africa’s largest multi-arts festival, attracting more than 200 000 visitors, who are here for more than 2 000 performances on a programme of more than 700 events. Photo: Sue Maclennan

A group of around 30 Phola Park residents set up a barricade of rocks and burning tyres at the north end of Trollope Street, outside Makana’s electricity department around 8.30am on Tuesday 12 June and remained there until late in the afternoon, demanding that Mayor Nomhle Gaga and other senior councillors answer their demand that their area be electrified. The demand is the legacy of a promise made by former Mayor Zamuxolo Peter, although a recent technical assessment has shown that electrifying the are where the informal settlement is built would be impractical and excessively expensive. Adding fuel to the…

With the winter traditional initiation season under way across the Eastern Cape, Makana Municipality is carrying out its mandate to monitor initiation schools within its jurisdiction. This week, a combined monitoring team including police, councillors, community development workers and ward committee members, along with the district’s designated medical officer, began a series of visits to the six initiation schools currently under way in Grahamstown. Young people have lost their lives at initiation schools across the province in recent years, with five initiates reported dying at traditional initiation schools in the Eastern Cape over the past two weeks. In line with…

A world-class veterinary facility that provides sought-after training for newly qualified professionals from around the world is quietly getting on with ground-breaking work in and around Grahamstown. Sue Maclennan reports At Ikhala Veterinary Clinic in Grahamstown’s Industrial Area, space-age technology and ground-breaking research into the big game that is the lifeblood of the Eastern Cape’s tourism economy thrive alongside hands-on, face-to-face work with pets and farm animals and their owners. Co-owner William Fowlds says Peter Brothers created an “incredible” and visionary facility when he established Frontier Vet Clinic five years ago. “We count ourselves very fortunate to be working…

Makana insiders have expressed concern that “strong” political interference could scupper acting municipal manager Ted Pillay’s efforts at getting the municipality into shape, with control over funding key to escalating conflict. Meanwhile, public service watchdog PSAM’s warning that accountability and the community are the casualties of deepening divisions within the ANC caucus is backed up by staff at the municipality, who say tensions between top-level administration and the politicians is making it hard to get things done. Pillay hit the ground running when he arrived at Makana Municipality on 1 February, engaging immediately with businesspeople, activists, politicians and residents to…

How the more expensive bidder was appointed for the Alicedale Sewerage Upgrade Project: a summary of Item S6.3 of the agenda for the Special Council Meeting at Makana Municipality on 30 May 2018. To be read alongside ‘Council tensions threaten Makana turnaround’. Stage 1 – Procurement (advertising and bid committees) 23 June 2017          Tender advertised: Estimated value was R16 263 340 7 August 2017        Bidding closed * Dates not given   Bids submitted to Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) *                               Bids submitted to Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) *   …

How the R10m Grahamstown CBD roads upgrade project happened: a summary of Item S6.9 of the agenda for the Special Council Meeting at Makana Municipality on 30 May 2018. To be read alongside ‘COUNCIL TENSIONS THREATEN MAKANA TURNAROUND’. The subject of SC6.9 is ‘Visit by the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs’.  ZWELI MKHIZE VISITED MAKANA with senior officials from Cogta’s National Office on 4 May 2018. He met with three sets of stakeholders: Rhodes University, local business and citizen groups, and the municipality. In his report to the 30 May 2018 Special Council meeting, Pillay detailed the background to the…

Makana Municipality’s Traffic Department recently acquired an automatic number plate recognition system to help them trace offenders with outstanding summonses and warrants of arrest. “It scans number plates and alerts us to offenders,” said Traffic head Coenraad Hanekom. Members of the public were advised to check at the Makana Traffic Office for any outstanding matters that could see them arrested at the side of the road. Photo: Supplied

Three weeks after the alarm was raised about e.coli in Makana’s water, there is still no official confirmation that the water is safe to drink, and the municipality’s advice to boil it remains. This comes as testing by staff from the Department of Water and Sanitation is under way this week in Makana and after privately conducted tests on the water in Currie Street in Grahamstown show that the water at that site is once again safe for drinking. Weeks of concern about poor water quality led to a protest Thursday 31 May in which angry residents left buckets of…