Makana Local Municipality is the local municipality which governs the town of Makhanda/Grahamstown and surrounding areas in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It forms part of the

Sarah Baartman District Municipality Sarah Baartman District Municipality (formerly Cacadu District Municipality) is situated in the western part of the Eastern Cape province, covering an area of 58 242 square kilometres. The area of the district municipality includes seven local m ...

. The municipality is named after a

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

prophet and leader,

Makana Makana is a mountain located on northern shore of the island of Kauai, Kauai, where it rises above Limahuli Valley. ''Makana'' is a Hawaiian language term meaning gift or reward. It is often used as a person's name or as part of a name. Limahul ...

Main places

The 2011 census divided the municipality into the following main places:

Politics

The municipal council consists of twenty-seven members elected by

mixed-member proportional representation Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

. Fourteen councillors are elected by

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in fourteen

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

, while the remaining thirteen are chosen from

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

s so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 1 November 2021 the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

(ANC) won a majority of fourteen seats on the council. The following table shows the results of the election.

Friendship Co-operation Agreement

In February 2011, Makana Municipality entered into a "Friendship Co-operation Agreement" with Raseborg Municipality in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The project, which is to last three years, seeks to facilitate information sharing in the fields of economic development, arts & culture, women development, youth development, and education.

Provincial Administration

On 28 August 2014 the Municipality was placed under

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

in response to financial and infrastructural crises. The interim administration order, made in terms of section 139(1)(b) of the

South African Constitution The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Govern ...

, is expected to be reviewed after three months. Shortly after the administration order was announced, news of a damning forensic report — the Kabuso report — naming several municipal officials purported to be involved in financial impropriety was made public.

Dissolution

In 2014 the city council was placed under administration by the courts for three months. This was due to its financial instability and inability to provide basic services. This intervention was not successful and on 14 January 2020, the Eastern Cape High Court dissolved the municipal council. The municipality will subsequently head to fresh elections. The Makhanda High Court made legal history by ordering the Makana Municipal Council to be dissolved. The court ruled that its ongoing failure to provide services to the residents of Makhanda was unconstitutional. Residents of Makhanda have widely welcomed a high court ruling that the Makana Municipal Council must be dissolved over its unconstitutional failure to provide services. It was the first such order by a court in South Africa. “This judgment sparks hope. We couldn’t live like this any more. We are very happy,” said Ayanda Kota, the founder of the Unemployed People's Movement, the organisation that brought the application.

References

External links

Makana Municipality

Makana-Raseborg
- blog documenting the progress of the friendship co-operation agreement. {{coord, 33, 17, S, 26, 31, E, region:ZA-EC_type:adm2nd_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Local municipalities of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality