It might not have been under ideal conditions, but Ntombizine Mtengwane was happy when she and her family were moved to temporary houses by authorities after a violent altercation between Mthatha’s Tipini residents and the Waterfall township community in 2012. This was after thousands of Tipini residents, who had turned an old dumpsite into a thriving shack-dwelling community, were accused by their neighbours of harbouring dangerous criminals.
In keeping with mayor Nyaniso Nelani’s dream of turning Mthatha into another Kigali, the King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) municipality is buying 100 additional dustbins for the Eastern Cape town. Though many Mthatha streets already have dustbins, residents and businesses have called for more to keep the town centre clean.
Twenty-five people were killed and many others injured inroad accidents in the EasternCape over the Easter weekend. Dozens of people were arrested in Buffalo City Metro and King Sabata Dalindyebo local municipality for offences ranging from drunk driving and obstruction, to driving an unlicensed motor vehicle, jumping a red traffic light, overloading and driving without a valid driver’s licence.
Fire swept through three buildings and four police vehicles in Mthatha at the weekend, destroying the offices of several law firms, part of the Madeira police station and a string of shops. The Elphil Properties building which houses Home City China Best Price and Dunns Clothing Store as well as the neighbouring five-story Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) building at York Road were affected.
King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality mayor Nyaniso Nelani’s big dreams of turning his municipality into a metro in two years’ time have come crashing down.This after a proposal to incorporate another town and several municipal wards from two other local municipalities into KSD to form a category A municipality failed to convince the Municipal Demarcation Board.