Amid public tensions and a string of administrative, sanitation and service-delivery woes, Grahamstown city officials and businesses say the town is dusting itself off for this year’s National Arts Festival, which starts next week.
Makana Municipality’s corporate operations and joint services portfolio manager, Likhaya Ngandi, admitted the municipality had been under pressure, but said it was undergoing a thorough recovery.
“All of us want to keep the festival alive and we will go out of our way to ensure that it happens,” Ngandi said.
The burning issues include potholes, unclean water and power outages.
According to an earlier council report, the municipality faces a huge pothole crisis which would cost in the vicinity of R1.2-billion to remedy.
“Construction to close all the potholes before the festival is under way,” Ngandi said.
“Businesspeople in Makana have come together and offered to assist with the potholes. They are fixing the potholes themselves.”
A fundraising auction held in Grahamstown recently raised R500 000 for Makana Revive – a private, citizen-led initiative to rehabilitate the city – that is helping to cover some of the costs attached to the work.
Makana Revive spokesman and Grahamstown Business Forum chairman Richard Gaybba said: “We’ve seen an influx of funding and the opening of channels between business and government.
“While big projects such as road repairs and the replacement of the town’s ageing water and sewerage infrastructure are starting to roll out, there is a hive of citizen activity as the people roll up their sleeves.”
On the subject of power supply, Ngandi said: “We have negotiated with Eskom to exclude our local grid in times of load-shedding so all the [festival] shows are uninterrupted.”
Last month, tap water was found to contain high concentrations of E. coli and other bacteria.
“The water and sanitation department is also working on plans to ensure the public does not get unclean water,” Ngandi said.
Festival chief executive Tony Lankester said that, as a nonprofit organisation, the festival did not have the resources, nor was it its duty, to maintain city infrastructure.
“We are happy to act as a catalyst for, and participant in the social movement we are seeing in Grahamstown where local businesses, residents and institutions are partnering with local and provincial government to resolve the issues where we can,” he said.Xolisa Ngubelanga is a Port Elizabeth-based theatre artist who has been gracing the festival stage since 2009.
“I wonder what state Grahamstown could have been in had it not been for the festival,” Ngubelanga said.
“Look at the recent issues of service delivery. It literally took a week from the announcement that [the festival] might drop the city, for the city to start paving its roads.
“It is a shame on the city that it has turned blind and deaf towards its people.”
Local poet Nqontsonqa Dayimani said the festival’s contribution to Grahamstown was limited.
However, Lankester said the festival provided employment for more than 400 freelance and contract staff each year.
Festival spokeswoman Sascha Polskey said it saw its relationship with greater Grahamstown as a year-round one and had been instrumental in driving projects that benefited residents across the entire area.