Calm, alert and attentive, Makhi Mka manages non-stop calls and WhatsApp messages from across the Sarah Baartman District. He has dark rings under his eyes. That and the fact that it’s taken a week to nail him down for an interview prove that right now, Makhi Mka is one of the busiest men in the Eastern Cape.
Makhanda’s most energetic octogenarian recalls a Christmas holiday 46 years ago that went horribly wrong but ended up turning around his family’s fortunes for the better.
A Makhanda undertaker emerged as one of the heroes of the day yesterday as a torrential downpour left Makana’s emergency services thinly stretched. With 50mm falling in just more than half an hour, homes and businesses across the city were flooded, trees toppled and flooded causeways left many roads impassable.
Two cash-in-transit guards escaped injury but were robbed of their firearms and the cash they were about to transfer in High Street, Makhanda, on Thursday morning. According to eyewitnesses, five men wearing overalls accosted the guards at about 9.10am, shortly after they parked outside Absa Bank.