Talk 30 December 2021

4 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 30 December 2021 TALK OF THE TOW N
YEAR IN REVIEW
Continued from PAGE 3
existing service programmes to
supply food to the needy, or the
new national initiative called
the Chefs with Compassion
67,000 litres Challenge.
● A Port Alfred resident who
had been observing a troop of
vervet monkeys for the past five
years was distraught to find the
alpha female had been
poisoned earlier in the month.
He asked the vet to do a
post-mortem and they found
granules in her gut, which
“appear to be those of
carbamate or organophosphate
poison – which coincides with
the clinical signs seen”.
AU G U S T
● Albeit 30 years after the
incident, local man Neal Shaw
was recently awarded a Bronze
Bravery Award by the NSRI for
his courage as the cruise ship
Oceanos began to sink in 1991.
● The residents’ group called
Panic (Port Alfred and Nemato
Infrastructure Concerns) gave
Ndlambe Municipality an
ultimatum to provide adequate
water supply or face legal
action.
This came after most of the
town had seen little to no benefit
from the new seawater reverse
osmosis (SWRO) plant which
went online in June.
Residents of the high-lying
areas had not had a municipal
water supply for seven months
or longer, while other areas
which used to receive an
intermittent supply were also
not getting any water.
● Later in August, after more
weeks of erratic water supply or
none at all, even in low lying
areas, there were still
unanswered questions about
Port Alfred’s new SWRO plant.
SEPTEMBER
● Alexandria residents were
shocked by the jarring scene of a
newborn baby found dead at the
Alexandria dumpsite.
Police spokesperson Captain
Bradley Rawlinson said the
mother of the child could not be
traced but an inquest docket had
been opened for investigation.
● The absence of “seasonal
data” was one of the reasons
offered by the contractor for Port
Alfred’s new seawater reverse
osmosis (SWRO) plant, for not
knowing the extent of e.coli,
faecal coliforms and algae in the
Kowie River which had affected
the running of the plant.
● Ndlambe Municipality
claimed it had been meeting the
legislative requirement of
mininum standards for basic
MORE DELAYS: One of the photos Quality Filtration Systems
put on its Facebook page in April showing trench work to lay
pipes and cables for the emergency two megalitre seawater
reverse osmosis plant
water supply to Port Alfred
residents, in a response to the
legal demands of the Port Alfred
and Nemato Infrastructure
Concerns (Panic) group.
● Five university students were
robbed at knifepoint while
watching the Universities Boat
Race from Centenary Park.
O C TO B E R
● Local man Johan Nortier told
us the story of his passion for
collecting ties. At that stage he
owned nearly 21,000 ties and is
aiming to beat the Guinness
World Record.
● Port Alfred’s water woes
looked to be alleviated at least
partially as a new 1ML owneroperated
reverse osmosis (RO)
plant was approved by the
Ndlambe council – at no capital
cost to the municipality.
● The EFF in Ndlambe called
on the municipality to terminate
its contract with RO plant
supplier Quality Filtration
Systems (QFS) because of the
c o m p a ny ’s failure to meet
contractual obligations in
providing water to residents.
● EFF PR councillor Xolisa
Runeli described the poor
turnout of local businesses,
members of the Panic group,
Sunshine Coast Tourism, the
Port Alfred Residents and
Ratepayers Association (Parra)
and other local stakeholders as a
missed opportunity to air their
concerns about the party at their
meeting.
N OV E M B E R
● Though losing two seats in
council, including the Ward 6
seat, the ANC in Ndlambe held
onto its majority in the local
government elections.
The tally was 11 seats to the
ANC, with 52.61% of the vote;
the DA retaining six seats, with
30.28% of the vote, and the EFF
gaining two proportional
representation (PR) seats, with
14.69% of the vote.
● Both Ndlambe municipality
and a borehole water provider
dismissed rumours that he was
no longer supplying water to the
municipality because of nonp
ay m e n t .
● Another high court judgment
was handed down on the issue
of stray cattle on Ndlambe’s
roads and the municipality’s
mismanagement of its
commonages.
Three years after obtaining a
court order against the
municipality, and five years after
litigation began, AgriEC and the
Alexandria Agricultural
Association returned to court,
along with four farmers who
NO PARKING AVAILABLE: Covered by sand from encroaching dunes, the ‘dunes’ carpark at
East Beach has become unusable
have been personally affected
by issues of commonage
mismanagement, stock theft,
broken fences and straying and
diseased cattle on their land.
● There was an immediate
power play in the newly
inaugurated Ndlambe council
as the ANC caucus took the
executive committee portfolio
positions it wanted and voted
with the EFF to force the DA into
the finance portfolio.
DECEMBER
● The leaseholder of the indoor
pool centre said in the time he
had been paying rates,
Ndlambe Municipality had
done no maintenance on the
car park which is now in a
dilapidated state.
● After significant rain fell in
the Kowie River’s catchment
area in Makhanda last
weekend, Port Alfred residents
were overjoyed to hear the
water was finally flowing over
the weir at Waters Meeting for
the first time in months.
FILLING UP: A photo posted by Quality Filtration Systems on its Facebook page on June 29 of
one of the water trucks used by the municipality filling up at the RO plant
SLUM STATE: When TotT visited a prime piece of municipal land, erf 361
in Pascoe Crescent, in May, the entire area was strewn with all kinds of
refuse, from behind the former Lounge (market building) to the
makeshift tent that has been set up beyond the last building