As residents of Kei Mouth and Morgan Bay (Gxarha) continued to pick up the pieces after last week’s devastating storm, it emerged there was plenty of damage further inland as well. The Amathole District Municipality (ADM) has appealed to the human settlements department for help with more than 200 families who were left homeless.
The Eastern Cape government has announced that more than R2bn has been earmarked to turn 11 strategic gravel routes into tar roads. Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko told the Bhisho Legislature on Tuesday that R512.9m had been added to the provincial roads maintenance grant, increasing it from R1.5bn to R2.
Police and traditional and government leaders have slammed large gatherings of amakrwala in towns and villages, urging residents to avoid these meetings as they often result infights. The leaders said the illegal gatherings called ukudodisana (questioning each other’s legitimacy on the rite of ulwaluko), where amakrwala (young men who graduated from initiation schools) scrutinise one another’s genuine manhood and share alcohol, was not only a disgrace to manhood, but bred criminality and gang.
The terrible state of roads in Mazeppa Bay has been blamed for the closure of the iconic Mazeppa Bay Hotel last week.Dating back to the 1930s, the hotel has been an important tourist destination.
Taxi violence is again rearing its ugly head in the Eastern Cape with at least three taxi bosses and drivers killed and one hospitalised in a critical condition on Wednesday on the R61 near Port St Johns.The year 2023 was one of the bloodiest, with more than 20 taxi bosses killed in a few months in Ngqamakhwe, Butterworth, Centane, Willowvale, Dutywa, Elliotdale, and Mthatha since July 18.