Makana’s pleas to MPs

Groups demand that contract of administrator be extended

CALLS to fill senior management positions at the Makana Municipality, appeals to have the town council dissolved and the thorny Kabuso forensic investigation that has cost R184-million were some of the issues MPs were confronted with when they visited the struggling municipality yesterday.

The visit by parliament’s select committee on cooperative governance was also used to ascertain whether Bhisho’s intervention had been working since it placed the town under administration last year.

At a public participation meeting at the Grahamstown City Hall, organised business, civil society, Rhodes University and the church fraternity sang the praises of Makana administrator Pam Yako for her efforts in turning the fortunes of the troubled municipality around.

They also called for her contract to be extended. It expires on April 5.

They said they feared if Yako’s contract was not extended, the municipality would return to its former state of chaos and paralysis that saw it struggling to deliver services to residents.

Yako took over the municipality’s affairs in October last year after the Eastern Cape government placed the town under Bhisho administration.

-Mkhululi Ndamase