Residents burn tyres at city hall in protest to have Makana council ousted
About 300 members of the Unemployed Peoples’ Movement set fire to tyres at the entrance to the Makana City Hall on Wednesday afternoon, demanding that the Makana council be dissolved and new elections held within three months.
Carrying placards which read “Makana management is a disgrace”, “Corruption affects us all” and “No more Politicians, Potholes & Poo”, people said they wanted the ANC council gone.
“Fat cats go to jail,” they chanted as several people fuelled the fire which blackened the old stone frontage of the city hall.
There has been no water in Makhanda East for about nine days and people’s fury has grown with each passing day. The municipality claimed the water pumped from the Fish River into the Glen Melville dam from where Makhanda East draws its water had been too turbid (muddy) to pump and they had to wait four or five days for it to settle. The taps in most of Makhanda west, including Rhodes University, also ran dry on Tuesday morning when a major pipe burst above the university.
A silent strike by municipal workers, who are ostensibly protesting their lack of protective clothing and tools of the trade, has also resulted in rubbish piling up on every corner of the filthy little city. Sewage is flowing down the roads and into people’s homes as blockages have also not been attended to.
Meanwhile Gift of the Givers distributed thousands of litres of bottled water throughout Makhanda East on Wednesday morning.
The organisation’s Ali Sablay said at lunchtime that all was going well with the distribution although some trucks quickly ran out of bottled water as desperate community members lined up hopefully at distribution points.
Gift of the Givers is also assisting the municipality with advice on medium to long term solutions, including the drilling of boreholes, around the city...
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