All posts relating to media exposure for the DA Eastern Cape legislature.
The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape has called on the Green Scorpions to investigate raw sewerage flowing into the Fish River at Cradock. The party’s Midland’s Constituency Leader, Retief Odendaal, says this will place the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. He says he visited the Local Municipality’s wastewater treatment plant in Cradock on Wednesday and was shocked to find it completely shut down, with no …
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Bethelsdorp and Kwazakhele ranked among 30 most dangerous places in country described as ‘a war zone’ Two of the country’s most deadly policing precincts are in Port Elizabeth. The areas – Bethelsdorp and Kwazakhele – are ranked among the top 30 most dangerous in SA, while Gelvandale tops the national list in terms of attempted murders. Startling figures for Nelson Mandela Bay show rampant violent crime – two people murdered, …
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IN THE past two years 38 guns were stolen in farm attacks in the Eastern Cape. Police have recovered nine of them. MEC for safety and liaison Weziwe Tikana told the Bhisho legislature, in a response to written questions by DA legislature leader Bobby Stevenson, that 21 guns were stolen in farm attacks in 2017 and 17 in 2016. Tikana said it was not clear whether the stolen firearms had …
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542 vulnerable pupils feel brunt of overtime pay war HUNDREDS of special needs children at three schools in Buffalo City Metro are spending as little as three hours at school because of a go-slow over the provincial education department’s failure to pay overtime. Since the Dispatch team started reporting on the impact of the work-to-rule labour action on special needs schools last week, we have learnt the number of children …
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THE Eastern Cape department social development is in a state collapse and paralysis. That is if the debate by the portfolio committee on social development in Bhisho yesterday is anything to go by. The report, which was adopted yesterday, paints a picture of a department in need of ICU and with inexplicable budget allocations for the 2018-19 financial year. According to the scathing report, among other failures: ● The social …
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THE Eastern Cape education department needs R4.4-billion to replace the unhealthy and unhygienic pit latrines and address general sanitary problems at schools. More than 3 000 schools are said to have no proper sanitation. This is 60% of the schools in the province. The department plans to fix 700 of these schools over the next 10 years. This was revealed by education MEC Mandla Makupula in his parliamentary response to …
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THE DA in the province yesterday called on education MEC Mandla Makupula to put a moratorium on his plan to merge all small schools in the Eastern Cape. Makupula announced the plan to “rationalise” more than 2 000 schools which had less than 200 pupils two years ago, saying the best thing was to close small schools and move the pupils to the next nearest school. But the DA’s Edmund …
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Those with no relatives in province will go elsewhere in SA THE Eastern Cape Social Development Department plans to start moving state-funded frail-care patients with no families in the province to facilities elsewhere in the country by next month. This was one of the answers given by Social Development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi in response to written questions about the ongoing saga. In mid-2016, Sihlwayi decided not to extend the contract …
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TAXPAYERS have forked out more than R1-million in eighteen months paying the salaries of 10 Eastern Cape social development officials who are sitting at home on precautionary suspension. This department has 32 pending disciplinary cases against staff members. Among these officials is one accused of buying R104 446 worth of radio airtime without following the correct procurement procedures. Another is being investigated for adding R5 500 to a quotation from …
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OPPOSITION parties in the Bhisho legislature have blamed the underwhelming state of the province address on an ANC “factional deadlock” in the province. This was stated by DA Bhisho leader Bobby Stevenson in his response yesterday to premier Phumulo Masualle’s Sopa speech. He said nothing was going to go smoothly in the province as long as the “chaos” caused by ANC factional battles continued to hold everyone to ransom. Masualle …
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