The dejected and desperate residents of Makhanda are taking their pleas for service delivery to the highest office in the land, calling on the president to intervene in the dysfunctional municipality.
Civil rights movement Makana Citizens Front (MCF) has sent a petition with 22,000 signatures to the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa, pleading for the national government to intervene in the ongoing service delivery crisis.
Sections of the City of Saints have been left without water or have only had a sporadic supply for almost four months.
Raw sewage is flooding homes and forcing pupils to tip-toe past streams of filth en route to school.
And pothole-riddled streets paint yet another despairing picture of the decay.
Adding to the woes, the two-month contracts for nurses at local clinics and hospitals expired at the end of March, with patients forced to come back daily in the hope of assistance.
MCF leader Lungile Mxube said the residents of Mahkanda had become desperate.
The politician turned anti-corruption activist, who once served in the Makana municipality, said the petition pleaded with Ramaphosa to instruct the national water and sanitation department to step in.
In an April 16 letter, Mxube said the president’s urgent intervention was required to resolve the ongoing “water disaster” and gave Ramaphosa 14 days to respond, failing which the MCF would approach the high court to compel the presidency to intervene.
“Mr President, you are one of the drafters of our constitution, in which you included a fundamental clause relevant to our water petition we are submitting to you for action now.
“Section 27(1)(a) states that everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water.
“This section guarantees our water rights but also places an obligation on you as head of state to ensure that your government respects our rights and fulfils its legislative mandate by ensuring that there is ‘sufficient and uninterrupted supply of water to residents’ as a whole.”
The letter said further that the water system design, infrastructure decay and operational failures had caused a man-made crisis.
“There is lack of transparency, reporting and consequence management.
“We therefore firmly believe that it is only a forensic investigation that can uncover and expose a corrupt network of prime beneficiaries while entire communities are suffering.”
Accompanying the letter was a stack of more than 20,000 hard-copy signatures urging the president to hear their cries for assistance.
Residents have outlined a series of demands aimed at addressing the ongoing water and sanitation challenges.
They are calling for the water and sanitation division to be placed under the administration of the national department.
The residents are also demanding that a comprehensive forensic investigation be launched into all water infrastructure grants and expenditure in Makana, covering the period from 2010 to 2026.
This, they say, is essential to account for how public funds have been used over the years.
In addition, they want a ministerial intervention team to be established, which must include locally qualified engineers as well as experienced professionals with the necessary capacity.
The team would be tasked with conducting a full infrastructure diagnostic assessment and skills audit.
A further demand focuses on job creation and skills development.
Residents are proposing that 7,500 unemployed young people in Makana be trained annually, from 2026 to 2030, in basic plumbing skills to become water technicians and artisans capable of addressing leaks.
During a drive through Joza Township, a rainwater canal was pictured with raw sewage streaming past, between and sometimes through the houses where hundreds of people live.
Grahamstown Deserves Better chair Devon Waldick said the municipality had not responded to queries regarding the sewage issues.
“It’s just lawlessness; we stay in a municipality that doesn’t care for our people,” he said.
“One feels oppressed in this town.
“You have to buy water to wash your clothes and to wash yourself because the water that comes out of the tap is so dirty that you can’t even wash your mouth with it.
“It’s total chaos.
“We have people who take cars up to a fountain on the way to Port Alfred and fill up bottles for the community.
“There are qualified engineers in Grahamstown who want to advise but the doors are all shut.
“Not having water in your taps for days and weeks causes depression.
“It becomes a big problem.
“When you have two or three people in a house together and you can’t flush the toilet can you imagine the smell?”
Resident Neville Kettledas said the water shortage was not due to drought when water was pouring out of leaks across Makhanda.
“Every time we as a community say we are going to take a stance and we stand up, there is water for weeks on end without having to shut it off.
“Once we start relaxing, the water is off for three weeks.
“So, where is the problem actually?
“We have to make a noise to get water.
“Our street lights have been off for weeks and that leads to excessive crime across our communities.”
In Scotts Farm a resident, who asked not to be named, said the stench of the sewage running past and sometimes through her house was unbearable.
“Whenever there is a big storm this river floods and it comes through my house.
“It’s ugly.
“My husband has to come outside and dig a dam to stop it coming into the house.
“When you step out of your bed, your feet are ankle-deep in sewage water.
“A person can’t live like this.”
The grandmother of three said her family was constantly getting sick, with her two-year-old granddaughter waking up on Friday with a swollen face.
“My daughter is at the doctor with her now.
“She is sick because of this sewage in our house.
“We have to find somewhere else for her to stay until she is better.
“We had to throw our couches and our carpets away.
“Most of our furniture is destroyed.
“We had to throw away our clothes.
“How are we going to get better if we live in a pigsty?
“Everybody is always sick and then you go to the clinic and there is only one nurse for the whole community.”
Outside the Joza Community Clinic, a grandmother, who also did not want to be named, had brought her grandson for the third time last week to try to get treatment for his eye problem.
“On Monday and Tuesday, there was only one nurse,” the grandmother said.
“She said the first 30 people could stay but everyone must walk to Settlers Hospital.
“We made it in time this morning.
“We waited four hours to see a nurse for my grandson’s eye problem that is very serious, but they only have Panado and Allergex.
“Settlers Hospital is too far, and then you get there and come to find that there is also one nurse on duty and there are no more beds.”
While the Joza clinic has fresh water in tanks that have been filled by various NPOs, an employee said many residents in Joza Township were suffering from diarrhoea, which he believed to be spreading via all the sewage running through the area.
“The nurses at this clinic and other clinics in Makhanda and even the hospital were on two-month contracts with the department of health for February and March, but those contracts ended so there is a shortage of nurses everywhere.”
Mxube said if Ramaphosa did not respond to their letter and the petition by the May 6 deadline the community had threatened to “take over City Hall”.
“On the 27th of April the country is expected to celebrate freedom, while in Makana our freedom has been destroyed.
“How can we celebrate freedom in Makana without water?
“So, by the sixth of May, if the president does not respond, we can take the masses to occupy City Hall.
“This municipality has converted our City of Saints into a city of shame and disgust.
“Corruption has systematically destroyed our city.”
Provincial health spokesperson Siyanda Manana said on Sunday that staff shortages were due to budgetary constraints and the withdrawal of US grant-funded staff but the department had secured emergency grant funding to bridge the gap.
“We have allocated funds to appoint nurses to bolster clinics and community-based care.”
With regard to clinics only having access to mild painkillers and allergy medication, Manana said “Panado and Allergex are basic frontline meds for acute primary health care”.
“We are sorting out the other supplier issues, though, seeing as it is a new financial year.”
Makana spokesperson Anele Mjekula did not respond to a series of messages and phone calls and emails since Friday.
The president’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, could also not be reached for comment.
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