Business collaborates to help City of Saints

THE Grahamstown Business Forum (GBF) and others have teamed up with Makana municipality to try and improve service delivery in the City of Saints.

A meeting was held late last week between the local authority, provincial government and community groups to address challenges facing the city like poor infrastructure, erratic electricity supply and housing issues.

The strategic planning session was hosted by the municipality and a team from Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle’s office after GBF chairman Dr Trevor Davies and his team held talks late last year to try to work together to iron out challenges.

Makana mayor Nomhle Gaga said in her welcoming address that everybody should work together to try to better the lives of everyone in the city.

Other groups attending the strategic planning session included: the Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council (Ecsecc), Ministers Fraternal, Rhodes University, Makana Tourism, Grahamstown Foundation, National Arts Festival, government departments, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) and Eskom.

The session, chaired by Baphelele Mhlaba from Ecsecc, provided an open platform for all to speak and share ideas freely.

In her report, acting municipal manager Riana Meiring stated that, although monthly revenue collection had increased to 82%, or around R23-million, for the municipality to operate properly it need at least R30-million to operate normally.

GBF secretary Markus Mostert said in a statement they were delighted to be part of the collaboration between private sector and local and provincial government.

Festival CEO Tony Lankester said he was encouraged by the willingness of delegates to confront and address challenges faced by the city.

“I am hopeful for the future of Grahamstown based on the engagement and passion of the participants and, while the challenges are real and they are big, I am confident that we’ll conquer them,” he said, adding that he looked forward to an action plan being devised based on the meeting.

The meeting came up with 24 resolutions to be included in the implementation plan.

These include: investigating a proposal to include the electricity supply of Grahamstown East from Eskom to Makana to try to improve debt collection, engaging the department of roads to repair provincial roads in Makana, prioritising funding proposals for housing from human settlements and coming up with funds on a “one rand from business, one rand from Makana” to try to beautify the city as well as trying to sort out potholes and improving water and electricity supplies before SciFest and the National Arts Festival. —