Download PDFThe Concerned Makhanda Residents is a civil society collective of residents who have come together with urgency of fixing the decaying state of a historic town. The complacency shown by the Makana Municipality officials has displayed complete arrogance and no will to change this state.
We, the collective mass-based organisations, faith-based institutions, private businesses, various political formations, unions and general members of the public are appalled at the deliberate attempts by the Makana Municipality, led by Mayor Yandisa Vara and the Speaker Mabhuti Matyumza, who hosted a bogus press conference, which left media persons without direction for three hours after the proposed starting time. The mayor upon finally appearing to conduct the briefing, led the media to site visits that were mediocre. The visits were to a WBHO site where road infrastructure was completed in Albany Road.
We are of the view that this weak attempt at falsely narrating progress in the city is invalid and does not give a true bleak view of the problems within the municipality. To correct the speaker Matyumza who had indicated that there was no money received for Bulk Infrastructure, we want to state that the statement is in fact was incorrect and that the municipality had received R41 642 million for the James Kleynhans Bulk Water Supply project for the 2023-2024 financial year and R21 947 million through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant which is a direct transfer from the Department of Water and Sanitation for Sanitation infrastructure for 2023-2024 financial year but we still have a bucket system in our town especially in informal areas such as Nkanini, Phaphamani and Zolani, which are informal settlements. According to a Human Rights Commission report (Volume 6), which investigated cases of Human Rights Violations in informal settlements, Zolani and Phaphamani, in Makhanda, found that residents had been habitating the area for well over 25 years and had not been provided with proper housing and sanitation. It further states in its legal analysis that:
“16.3. The Respondent (Municipality) is alleged to have violated the resident’s right to human dignity, privacy, clean environment, and access water of the residents by its failure to connect toilets to the water supply system thereby leaving residents with no alternative but to dig holes for use as pit toilets.
16.4. The Respondent has not furnished the Commission with its Integrated Development Plan (IDP), water and sanitation policy, project action plans and timeframes despite our repeated requests to do so.”
This report was conducted in 2013, twelve years later the state of the people in Phaphamani and Zolani remains the same. Instead of prioritising these basic needs of the poor, it has been reported that the poor leadership in the Makana Municipality will be taking mobile dustbins to Nkanini, an area that is riddled with poor infrastructure, poor service delivery and two gap taps serving the entire community. This thoughtless gesture is an indication of a below-par leadership in the municipality and gross mismanagement of funds.
Within the underhanded tactics that had been instigated by the mayor and company, they had informed the Nkanini community to not attend our March. We find this to be repulsive considering the mayor’s position which is to serve the people of this town and not instigate divisions in the community. It has been fundamentally clear that the Makana Municipality Mayor is utilising government
service delivery as an attempt to manipulate communities.
Without a doubt in our minds, we stand firm on the ground, leading the residents of this town towards the March on 26 February 2025, the March continues and shall not be deterred!
This press statement was released by Concerned Makhanda Residents on 25 February 2025.
