Author: Sue Maclennan

GRA Report Back 18th August 2017 We listen. We hear your frustration. Something must be done. You are right, action is needed on many fronts and it needs the able to engage and motivate for change.  It’s one thing to talk, another to take action. Thank you Ron Weissenberg for initiating a call for substantial turn around action to achieve a far more successfully managed Grahamstown.  He has also collected some committed supporters who aim use their resources to make our city cleaner and safer, starting with safe. CCCSM news The correspondence between Concerned Citizens to Save Makana (CCCSM) and…

The GRA reports that Makana Municipality have appointed a service provider, Ilizwe Town and Regional Planners cc, to undertake a feasibility study and to compile a business plan for the purpose of developing Grey Dam into an income generating self-sustainable tourist and recreational facility. Below is one reader’s response. Read the document here: bit.ly/GRAGreyDam The GRA reports from the document: ‘Imperative to the Feasibility Study and Business Plan procedure is active stakeholder involvement throughout the process. Stakeholders must be assured that the stakeholder list can be updated at any time and those new organisations, structures, individuals and groupings can be included at any…

Grahamstown has around two-and-a-half months before it could run into serious water supply problems, according to Makana Municipality. This information comes as the Department of Water and Sanitation warns that the Eastern Cape’s water shortages continue, despite the recent rains, with Settlers and Howieson’s Poort dams currently at 20% and 21% respectively. The Infrastructure directorate has its hands full after vandalism at the Belmont Waste Water Treatment Works that will cost R300 000 to repair has resulted in extensive sewage overflows. This comes against the background of staff in the water and sanitation department resisting overtime cuts through unofficial go-slows. Through…

Choral and orchestral conducting master classes are being held at the Miriam Makeba Centre at the East London campus of the University of Fort Hare from tomorrow Thursday 24 August to Sunday 27 August. Hosted by the Melting Pot Arts Festival, 45 conductors from around the country will enjoy the opportunity to be trained by international conductors. The development programme is in partnership with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, bringing music to a wide South African audience. Visiting conductors from Britain include Jeremy Silver, who is very active in youth development and also serves on the artistic team of the National…

SETTLERS DAM The photographs below, taken from similar angles at different times, show a continued drop in the dam level. The most recent estimate had the dam, Grahamstown’s main western water supply, at 20%. Despite extensive rainfall in many areas of the Eastern Cape over the past week, these have had no significant influence on the Eastern Cape dam levels, the Department of Water and Sanitation said in a statement. The Department appealed to water users to continue to use water wisely and adhere to water restrictions where applicable. “Despite the recent rainfall in the province, the dam levels are…

When Thursday’s floods reached Karen Massey’s doorstep, she called her daughter in desperation. ‘needing assistance in Calvert Street, cant get hold of anyone at the municipality. water nearly inside our house,’ her daughter Roxanne Frans wrote in a message via Grocott’s Mail’s Facebook page in desperation at 12.22pm. She also put out the call on the Grahamstown Facebook page, where she got a lot of commiseration and sympathy. But the help came, according to councillor for the area Brian Fargher, from Makana’s Fire and Emergency Services staff who unblocked a stormwater drain choked with rubbish. At 12.47pm he messaged in…

Police are investigating a case of culpable homicide after Bathurst resident Barbara Jean O’ Reilly, 65, was hit by a car on the N2, 40km east of Grahamstown last Sunday. Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said the tragedy occurred around 4.30pm Sunday 20 August.  She and her husband had stopped opposite the Frasers Camp shop. “The woman was crossing the road, when she was hit by a car,” Govender said. A friend who later arrived at the scene described it as horrendous. The couple are tenants on his farm on the Port Alfred side of Bathurst. The driver of the vehicle,…

This week the oldest Presbyterian congregation in southern Africa  – Trinity Church, Grahamstown  –  celebrates the 190th anniversary of its founding. Yet to the surprise and delight of many, this largely white, mainly elderly, fairly traditional congregation has called and appointed a young, unmarried, black, female minister to be its new pastor. The Reverend Boitumelo Gaborone was formally inducted as minister of word and sacraments in an exuberant, exciting and moving ceremony in Trinity Church on Saturday 5 August. The Moderator of the Presbytery of the Central Cape, the Reverend Sipho Ncapayi officiated, with the assistance of the Reverend Glen Craig. Ministers and representatives from…

Police and emergency services are at a scene of an accident on the R72 between Port Alfred and Alexandria, according to SAPS spokesperson Captain Mali Govender. “The head on collision took place at around half past two this afternoon claiming the lives of two and leaving four critically injured,” she said. A case of culpable homicide is being investigated, Govender said.