YEAR IN REVIEW 2023: NEWS
Nyanya’s determination, persistence and nonsensedetection abilities. Nyanya said finding the two dogs had been a miracle.
Police investigations into a case of arson after a section of the Ndlambe traffic department’s offices was damaged by fire on June 26 were at an advanced stage, the police said.
October
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A proposal that Ndlambe Municipality apply to be declared a disaster area in the wake of the spring tide storm surges of September 15, 16 and 17 was passed by council on Thursday September 28. Such a declaration opened the channel for possible disaster relief funding through the National Treasury.
In a remarkable turnaround, it took only four days from arrest to sentencing after Alexandria police spotted a man behaving suspiciously on the town’s main road.
Fighting wildfires in Canada for a month was a real eye opener for Port Alfred-based fire fighter Mzimkhulu Mdladlamba. SA firefighters from the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment’s Working on Fire programme were in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, where they have helped fight widespread wildfires.
A group of 20 small-scale fishers and activists staged a protest at the Small Boat Harbour, and asked questions at a public engagement session about the plans of Total Energies Exploration and Production SA B.V. to mine gas they have discovered in the ocean.
The police urged anyone with information that could help with their investigation into the murder of 28-year-old Makhanda resident Myrodine May to contact them. May’s body was found buried in a shallow grave in the bushes near Dickerson Road on Thursday October 12.
A CBD Port Alfred secondhand dealer was arrested and the three firearms confiscated in an intelligence driven operation carried out by SAPS Nemato members.
The Bathurst Ratepayers and Residents Association urged residents to keep their dogs confined to their properties, or walk them on leashes after more than two dozen specially bred goats at the Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) in Bathurst were killed by dogs, and more maimed or crippled.
At the current trajectory, it would take 86 years for SA to catch up our backlog in the lifechanging skill of being able to read and, more important, understand what you read, Rhodes University vice chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela said at the Eastern Cape launch of the Right to Read campaign at Fikizolo Primary School in Makhanda.
NOVEMBER
Justice minister Ronald Lamola dismissed as “misinformation” an economic impact report professor predicting the shedding of thousands of jobs in Makhanda if the seat of the high court moved from that city to Bhisho.
Spending R700,000 of public funds on the Ecawe Music Festival was ill conceived and inappropriate, the Port Alfred Ratepayers and Residents Association (PARRA) said. The organisation said it was a disgrace that Ndlambe
Municipality approved spending that amount on what it said was a frivolous event. The Ecawa Music Festival is scheduled to take place at Mamityi Gidana Stadium eNdlovini, Nemato, from 3pm on Sunday December 24 to 5am on Sunday December 25.
Dozens of small, medium and micro business owners gathered in Titi Jonas multipurpose Centre on Thursday November 2 to receive tools of trade. Minister of small business development, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, addressed the gathering.
The driver of a Haval station wagon failed to make the rightangle turn on the road to East beach, Port Alfred, and instead went straight across the roadside bush into the Kowie River. Both occupants survived the crash and Kowie Towing retrieved the vehicle from the river with the assistance of diver Jandre ‘Terry’ Terblanche and boat skipper Adrian Mouton.
ActionSA’s provincial chair Athol Trollip visited Kenton-onSea and Marselle as part of the party’s plan to extend its reach in the Eastern Cape and specifically Ndlambe.
An argument over food allegedly led to an Alexandria man stabbing his 77-year-old grandmother.
Children at a Makhanda school were undergoing counselling after a grade 7 pupil drowned during a school outing at an entertainment and accommodation facility on Friday November 10 at Makana Resort.
Two people died and three sustained injuries, in a head-on collision on the R72 opposite Port Alfred’s Rosehill Mall on Tuesday November 14.
There was a party atmosphere on the margins of the Kariega River lagoon at Kenton-on-Sea, on Saturday November 11, as 36 children aged six to 12 from Kenton, Ekuphumleni, Klipfontein and Marselle took to the water in groups of three to learn how to be safe and sensible in water. The event was the Kenton-onSea launch of the NSRI Survival Swimming initiative.
There were renewed calls for action to make the R72 coastal road safer after a woman missed death or serious injury by minutes after her car was flipped upside-down and partly crushed by a truck travelling from East London to Gqeberha via Port Alfred, that lost control on the hill before the bridge. “If it had been five minutes later, I would have been in it,” Port Alfred resident Sherrie Bradfield said.
Civil society organisations were furious at Makana Municiplility for its inability to spend over R60m intended to upgrade its decrepit public infrastructure – money that National Treasury now wanted returned to its coffers.
Three men facing charges of conspiring to poach rhinos will have the opportunity to present their defence early in 2024. Kenneth Chigaweni, Thomas Joao Machele and Amos Ncube pleaded not guilty on Monday November 13, day one of
proceedings under way in the Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape’s third case based on conspiracy to poach. According to the indictment, they intended to poach rhinos at Ezulu Game Reserve between Bedford and Makhanda.
Following its successful launch in Kenton-on-Sea on November 11, the NSRI’s Survival Swimming programme was launched on November 18 in Port Alfred. NSRI supporter, Multi Security’s Clinton Millard. Millard said that following the tragic drowning of four children at Kenton’s Middle Beach late on New Year’s Day this year, the NSRI had decided to start the organisation’s Survival Swimming programme in Ndlambe.
December
The department of water and sanitation commended Ndlambe Municipality’s improvement in its Blue Drop score from 49.47% to the current 57.55% and said if the plans and intentions verbally presented during the audit were implemented, it anticipated a significant increase in the score by the next audit period.
Port Alfred police warned the public to be cautious when buying items online, and to be careful at ATMs after an increase in online fraud cases reported, with 14 cases have been reported.
Multi Security rescued a woman from a house fire in Sport Road on Saturday November 25 after their control room received a panic alarm.
The St Mary’s Development and Care Centre staged an awareness march as part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign. Children joined with adults to show their support for the Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls theme of the Makhanda Children’s Rights Coalition. Schools, creches, churches and St Mary’s staff carried placards saying “Stop hurting us”, “Say No to violence
against children” and “Women and children’s lives matter too”.
Members of the Klipfontein based Moeggesukkel Fishing Cooperative and the Ekuphumleni Fishing Cooperative were among a group protesting at Middle Beach, Kenton, on Saturday December 9. The group of around 20 were objecting to the exploitation of ocean fossil fuel resources that they believed threatened their livelihoods. They were part of a nationwide protest against recent authorisations for fossil fuel exploration off SA’s coast.
Ndlambe needed to balance its emphasis on good audit outcomes with practical service delivery. Mayor Khululwa Ncamiso said this at a full council meeting on Friday December 8, after the speaker’s announcement that the municipality had achieved its second successive unqualified audit opinion. Other outcomes that Ncamiso listed as having been achieved by the municipality during 2023 were the imminent completion of a water treatment plant at Bathurst; the handing over of two water infrastructure contracts to Ndlambe by Amatola Water; the rectification of 248 RDP houses in Alexandria; and the paving of several township roads.
Rhodes University announced a ground-breaking Makhanda Education Summit, set to take place on January 2728 2024, and spearheaded by the vice-chancellor, Prof Sizwe Mabizela. In contrast to the city’s physical decline due to ineffective municipal service delivery, organisations, and individuals had worked tirelessly to keep the area from collapse and to contribute meaningfully to their sectors.
Makhi Mka, the department of health’s designated medical officer for traditional initiation schools in the Sarah Baartman District confirmed on Tuesday that there had been no adverse events when it came to the physical safety of the 427 initiates in Ndlambe or the 778 children undergoing ulwaluko in Makana.