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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe town of Makhanda, located between Port Elizabeth and East London, has a history of municipal mismanagement, having received “disclaimers of opinion” from the Auditor General since 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is one of the worst possible audit outcomes, indicating the lack of supporting financial documentation from the municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a 2025 GroundUp<\/a> report, residents of Makhanda have been experiencing water outages since 2012, from a municipality with a collection rate under 60%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lack of a continuous, reliable water supply has reportedly forced large revenue-generating institutions to seek alternative sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rhodes University, for example, which is the single largest ratepayer, is planning to establish its own water treatment facility to process water from its borehole system, and has urged alumni to assist in funding the initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A significant challenge facing the university is the unreliable water supply from the Makana municipality,” said deputy vice-chancellor Professor Mabokang Monnapula-Mapesela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two of the top three private schools in Makhanda have found alternative sources of water to provide a reliable supply to students, including their own borehole and harvested rainwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, St. Andrew’s College still relies mainly on municipal water, while using its own water supplies during water outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, Tyantji residents, among many others in Makhanda, have reported water shortages. In 2025, an incident was reported of a man who died after being unable to access water following his house fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retired water engineer Peter Sturrock said that 28 million litres is needed daily to meet the 18 million litre demand, due to the many leaks in the reticulation system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, an upgrade to the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works was announced as a solution to the city’s water issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This upgrade, which sources water from the Glen Melville Dam on the Orange\/Fish scheme, was intended to double the treatment plant’s capacity from 10 million litres to 20 million litres per day by 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the project has not yet been completed. The costs have surged from the initial estimate of R160 million to over R700 million to date. This is according to Phillip Machanik, a councillor with the Makana Citizens Front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Property experts have reported that the property market in a small town is experiencing significant growth, driven by families of children attending prestigious schools in the town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":856660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[25169,23428],"class_list":["post-856606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-makana-municipality","tag-makhanda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856606"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857621,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856606\/revisions\/857621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\nBelow are photos of some of the houses that private school families are buying in Makhanda.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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