The Rep 1 October 2021

THE REPRESENTATIVE 1 October 2021 Tel: (045) 839-4040 / editorial: mjekulal@therep.co.za / advertising: charodinev@therep.co.za 7
Marchers demand officials resign
Group accuse Emalahleni mayor, MM and CFO of corruption, poor services, irregular expenditure
ABONGILE SOLUNDWANA
Emalahleni residents and members
of a business forum embarked on
a peaceful march to Emalahleni
Local Municipality on Friday to
demand that mayor Nontombizane
Koni, municipal manager Velile
Makedama and CFO Xolani Sikobi,
vacate their positions.
They submitted a memorandum of
demands alleging the trio have been
involved in irregular expenditure and
tender corruption, as well as poor
service delivery.
Emalahleni business forum chair,
Xolisile Pemba, who led the march,
said they were demanding that the
three step down with immediate effect,
and for the Hawks to begin lifestyle
audits.
Some of their allegations were that
the municipal manager had been living
in a B & B since he started in his
position in October 2019.
Pemba said: “The infrastructure
manager, Yonela Maselana-Casa, who
left suddenly, was threatened by men in
front of the municipal offices at
gunpoint where she was told to resign
with immediate effect and the
municipal manager’s car was seen in
front of the woman’s house regularly.’’
Pemba alleged the acting supply
chain management manager had been
‘’acting’’ for more than two years to
manipulate tender processes.
Pemba alleged the municipal
manager and the CFO demanded R2m
upfront for tenders.
Sub-contractor Nomaswazi
Kunene said: “The MM was forced by
Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha to
implement the 30% policy for local
contractors to benefit Emalahleni
p r o j e c t s .’’
This, she said, was after Makedama
refused to give 30% of the jobs to local
SMMEs.
Kunene said they had warned the
mayor about Makedama’s corrupt
tendencies.
She alleged that the irony was that
the mayor had exposed the corruption
in the previous administration which
was removed.
The memorandum of demands was
received by speaker Dumiso Kalolo,
with the council expected to respond
within 14 days.
Meanwhile, Hawks Captain Yolisa
Mgolodela said a report to start the
investigation was received.
Emalahleni municipal spokesperson
Luthando Nqumkana said the period
Makedama had stayed in a B & B, paid
for by the municipality, had ended, as
he arranged his own accommodation.
❝
[Maselana-Casa] was
threatened by men in
front of the municipal
offices at gunpoint
where she was told
to resign with
immediate effect.
Nqumkana said when the supply
chain manager's term lapsed, no one
was interested in the position.
As far as brown envelopes of R2m
to secure tenders were concerned, he
said fraud or corruption-related talk
was hearsay, and should rather be
reported to law enforcement agencies.
Regarding the 30%, he said the
municipality was forced to implement
the percentage policy for subcontracting,
but local businesses were
selective in their approach.
He said the Cogta MEC's
intervention regarding sub-contracting
was to negotiate 30% beneficiation,
but this was not the proper way of
doing things as they were assisting
emerging businesses to negotiate for
sub-contracting, with the budget far
less than the R30m tender value
required for sub-contracting, though it
helped local contractors.
‘’We accept it was our fault to make
IN PROTEST: Emalahleni
residents, led by a local
business forum, march to
the local municipality’s
offices recently
demanding that top
officials accused of
mismanaging the
municipality’s funds, leave
their jobs P i c t u re :
ABONGILE SOLUNDWANA
grounds for negotiations between local
contractors and those who won tenders
below the set amount for subcontracting.
We acknowledge that
some companies in our area benefitted
from the 30% sub-contracting and their
grades improved from where they were
p r e v i o u s l y,’’ Nqumkana said.
As far as threats to demolish
hawkers' shacks, Nqumkana said the
municipality was not aware of this.
‘’We will not tolerate allegations of
intimidation against anyone as people
have a right to protest action.’’
On the ‘’gunpoint’’ allegations,
Nqumkana said electricity manager
Maselana-Casa resigned from the
municipality to take up another
o p p o r t u n i t y.
School repairs potholes after
hit-and-run accident
Local documentary explores
the intense struggle leading to
1985 Queenstown Massacre
BRINGING CHANGE: Ekuphumleni High School pupils, teachers and SGB members are in an initiative
to eradicate potholes in Hewu following a hit-and-run accident on a pupil from the school. According
to witnesses, the car swerved to avoid a pothole and hit the 16-year-old matric pupil P i c t u re :
SUPPLIED
NTSIKELELO QOYO
After almost losing a pupil in an accident because of a
motorist swerving to avoid a pothole, Ekuphumleni
High School has directed its efforts into repairing all
the potholes in Hewu, Whittlesea.
Last week, pupils and teachers were shocked
when a matric pupil was involved in a hit-and-run
accident. According to witnesses, the 16-year-old
pupil was hit by a speeding car that swerved to avoid a
pothole.
She is using crutches and is no longer in hospital.
In a move to bring positive change in the
community follow the accident, Ekuphumleni High
School teachers, SGB members and pupils have now
have sworn to eradicate every pothole in the village.
“Potholes are everywhere. They are now a danger
to motorists and pedestrians,” said Ekuphumleni
acting principal, Mzi Mdlangu.
Since last week the school has fixed all the
potholes in the road near the school and they are now
fixing the road towards the Hewu Hospital.
“We have been frustrated by the deep, wide
potholes there have been since 2018, ignored by the
municipality. They resulted in an accident. The school
therefore resolved to start this initiative because we do
not want to see more pupils hit by cars as we are next
to a busy road,” Mdlangu said.
NTSIKELELO QOYO
The 1985 Queenstown Massacre was one
of the most traumatic events in the history
of the town, with 12 people murdered and
22 injured.
The the incident was the apogee after a
four-month long consumer boycott that
gripped the town and brought the local
economy to its knees.
The events leading up to the massacre
are now the focus of a new documentary,
Asithengi (We are not buying) - the rallying
call of the boycott.
It premiers today on YouTube and later
this year at tour festivals on the continent
and abroad.
In the words of those involved in the
boycott, the demands and aims of the
civic resistance and subsequent
consequences are narrated in intimate
detail, explaining what happened in
Mlungisi and Komani leading up to the
fateful day.
“The aim is to shift attention from what
actually happened on the day as little is
known of the preceding four months to
November 17. This documentary
captures the three months of intense
struggle between local black residents and
the might of the apartheid regime in that
small Eastern Cape town. A time when the
local black residents said, ‘Asithengi’,”
said the executive producer of the
documentary, Ayabonga Cawe.
According to the author and radio
personality, the capitulations of the then
white-only city council which had a
AYABONGA CAWE
meeting with boycott organisers about
bringing an end to the stalemate was proof
of the success of the strategies employed
by civic movements in fighting the
injustices of the regime.
“The boycott in many ways presented a
historic account of self-government in
black areas in South Africa, and an
example of the negotiated resolution to a
social impasse, long before Codesa in the
early 1990s. The boycott was only
suspended in April 1986.
“By then, almost all 35 white-owned
businesses in the town had closed or
suspended trading and PW Botha had
targeted the magisterial district of
Queenstown as part of the State of
Emergency regulations.@
The documentary was independently
produced by Xesibe Holdings, Cawe’s
company. It is available on the Xesibe
Holdings YouTube channel. Everyone
involved in the research and production of
the documentary is from Komani.