Eastern

Eastern Cape Ncop Delegation Calls for Resuscitation of Delayed Infrastructure Development Projects

On the last day of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) 2024 Provincial Week Programme, the Eastern Cape’s Permanent Delegates to the NCOP expressed their displeasure with the rising number of delayed infrastructure development projects in the province.

The delegation reiterated this displeasure during the last day of its week-long oversight visit to the selected infrastructure projects in the Chris Hani District Municipality as part of the NCOP’s Provincial Week Programme. The delayed projects included Fikile Gwadana Road, Louis Rex Primary School and the Komani Economic Industrial Park.

The delegation heard that the newly established Queenstown Economic Industrial Area project started on 14 February 2022 and was expected to be completed on 13 February 2023. However, due to a court action, the project was delayed for eleven months, from August 2022 to July 2023. The new completion date was 30 September 2024, but the project is still far from completion, mainly due to budgetary constraints.

The Louis Rex Primary School in the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality has 33 prefabricated temporary classes. The project, which is at 54% completion, encountered a delay mainly due to poor performance by the first contractor.

The school’s principal informed the delegation that the school is overcrowded and has no recreational facilities, school clerk, staff room, or security guards. As a result, the school is vulnerable to all forms of crime emerging in the region, including extortion.

The Komani Industrial Park, situated within the greater Komani urban area, comprises two existing industrial areas of Queendustria and Ezibeleni township and is one of the district’s economic hopes.

The delegation heard that the park is faced with problems that include relocation of investors due to, among other things, water shortage, insufficient electricity supply, lack of ICT connectivity, insecurity, and lack of funding for park operations.

The delegation called on the leaders of the district and local municipalities where these projects exist to ensure that all of them are resuscitated and accordingly budgeted for so that they can be completed.

The leader of the delegation, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, said, “It is high time that we commit ourselves to salvaging the situation. Let us engage all the roleplayers to ensure that all these projects become alive and the objectives for which they were planned are fulfilled.”

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Protesters Beg for Development in Their Small Eastern Cape Town

Dozens of residents of Tsomo marched to the offices of the IntsikaYethu Local Municipality on Tuesday, demanding development of the town.

Dozens of residents of Tsomo in the Eastern Cape marched to the municipal offices on Tuesday.
They are demanding the municipality work to develop the small town.
They say too many projects, which could provide much-needed jobs, are started but not completed.

Residents of Tsomo, near Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, marched to the municipal offices to demand development of their town.

Tsomo is one of the smallest towns in the Eastern Cape with few shops.

Protesters said that the economy of the town was slowly dying. They called for the gravel road to Stutterheim to be tarred, for drains to be fixed and for projects such as the taxi rank to be completed.

Business leader Sima Qwele said there were too many unfinished projects and people were tired of waiting for jobs.

“People are frustrated. It’s rare to find a project finished in time. Most people are relying on these small municipal projects for work. Tsomo is very small with only few shops. It lacks banks. People have to go to Cofimvaba, Queenstown or Butterworth for most services,” said Qwele.

He said residents had decided to march to the municipal offices because they had heard that a developer wanted land to build shops and they wanted the municipality to provide the land. “Our understanding is that this developer will bring about 350 jobs to young people of Tsomo,” said Qwele.

Shops were closed during the march.

Resident Siphosethu Mancotywa said, “ As you can see 90% of the people here are young. We are unemployed. We need jobs.” She said many projects were started but not completed, pointing to the R23-million, multi-purpose centre which was started in 2015 and is still unfinished.

“The first contractor left, then another contractor came last year. They destroyed everything that was built by the first contractor and started from scratch. For the past eight years we have been waiting for this centre to be finished so we can apply for jobs, even if it’s a cleaning job. That will mean something to those who are lucky. And the centre will be helpful to our communities. There are young people with talent here. All we are asking of our municipality is that they must invite investors and not chase away those who are here to develop the town. They must find ways to keep them,” she said.

Community leader Hardy Mzimkhulu said the Tsomo economy could grow if the municipality tarred the road from Tsomo to Stutterheim. “That will be a shortcut to East London. The taxi industry will benefit and more cars will come to Tsomo,” he said.

IntsikaYethu Local Municipality spokesperson Zuko Tshangana said land marked for development had been sold to the developer, who had submitted building plans. But the plans had not been approved because the developer was planning to encroach on land reserved for municipal parking. The developer had been advised to revise his building plan, Tshangana said.

Residents handed their memorandum to Mayor Khanyisa Mdleleni who promised to look into their grievances.

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Eastern Cape police lauded for tracing CIT suspects

The provincial head of the police in the Eastern Cape, Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya, has welcomed efforts by the Interim Cash-In-Transit (CIT) task team of the Hawks and the provincial Tactical Response Team (TRT) in locating cash-in-transit (CIT) suspects on Monday.

The suspects were located within hours after the incident occurred.

It is alleged that on Monday around 06:00, an SBV armoured vehicle (AV) from East London, enroute to Stutterheim, was ambushed on the N6 near Macleantown by a number of suspects in a fleet of vehicles.

“It is further alleged that during the incident, three guards were injured as the AV landed on its side during the attack. An SBV escort vehicle was also allegedly shot at and a backup to the scene was called,” the police said in a statement.

The suspects allegedly fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of money and abandoned three vehicles from their fleet, which were later circulated and discovered to have been reported stolen in other provinces. Explosives were also recovered on the scene.

“A few hours later, information was received which led the team to Kom location in a homestead of Keiskammahoek.

“The team was received with a hail of bullets from the assailants in the suspicious homestead and the police were forced to retaliate with the same force which ended with five of the assailants fatally wounded,” the police said.

Cash in original money bags,3xAK 47 riffles, 1x R1 riffle, 4 x R5 riffles,17 magazines with a large number of live rounds of ammunition were recovered and seized in the household.

A 58 year old suspect who happened to be the owner of the homestead was arrested and will appear in King William’s Town Magistrate’s court soon.

A follow up investigation ensued which led to the arrest of three suspects driving in a suspicious Porsche vehicle with GP registration between Queenstown and Cradock.

A quick roadblock was set up by Gqeberha Serious Organised Crime Investigation of the Hawks jointly with Cradock SAPS K9 (Dog Unit), Cradock Visible Police (Vispol), Cradock Public Order Police (POP) and Local Criminal Record Centre (LCRC) members outside Tarkastad where the suspicious vehicle failed to stop.

The chase ensued and conventional methods were used to bring it to a halt.

Three suspects aged between 44 and 48 were arrested. Cash in stacks of R100 and R200 notes in original cash bags, four burner cellphones and a Porsche Cayenne vehicle were seized during the arrest. On circulation the Porsche was found to be reported stolen in Gauteng.

The three suspects will make their first court appearance before Cradock Magistrate’s court on Thursday. – SAnews.gov.za

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