Eager anticipation among the crowd in Church Square on Wednesday morning turned to puzzled confusion when, having arrived nearly two hours later than scheduled, President Jacob Zuma, in Grahamstown to receive the Freedom of the CIty, promptly disappeared into the City Hall.
Eager anticipation among the crowd in Church Square on Wednesday morning turned to puzzled confusion when, having arrived nearly two hours later than scheduled, President Jacob Zuma, in Grahamstown to receive the Freedom of the CIty, promptly disappeared into the City Hall.
It would be a good 45 minutes before he emerged again. But is seems it was 45 minutes well spent, as councillors, sparing nothing in their plea for the President to come to the aid of the struggling municipality, reportedly gave him a frank account of their failures.
Makana Executive Mayor Zamuxolo Peter explained to Grocott's Mail that they'd told the President about all the municipality's projects aimed at making people's lives better – even those that were not doing so well.
"We had nothing to hide," he said.
"There was that Cutting Edge [programme]that was shown before the elections," Peter said referring to the SABC 1 programme which showed footage in Kwa-Ndancama, where the bucket toilet system is in use.
"We mentioned that we had managed to secure funding of R2.6 million towards the eradication of the system."
Peter also said they had mentioned the challenge of the crumbling infrastructure. "We understand that he would not be able to make a commitment on the spot, so we packaged everything we needed his help with." Peter said this had been done in the form of a business plan, which Zuma took away with him when he left Grahamstown.
Projects in this plan included a development for the Egazini heritage site and Dakawa Centre. "We will not please everyone. What is not good, we will work towards correcting those mistakes and acknowledging them," Peter said.
And the concerns were acknowledged in the President's address at Miki Yili stadium, where the formal proceedings took place.
"This occasion reminds us all that despite our 17 years of hard work to improve the lives of our people, we still have to do more to provide access to basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and refuse collection," he said.
Zuma mentioned Makana projects that had funded centrally, through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
"These developments will not solve all developmental or service delivery backlogs, but they lay the foundation for further work, and working together, more can be achieved."
