When he is in the mood, there is water in the village. When he isn’t, there’s none. This is the depth of cruel ideocracy our democracy has plunged to in the Eastern Cape where water is denied to hundreds of thousands causing catastrophic suffering. But this employee, says Mlindeli Lonzi, headman of a village in Dikeni, will leave hundreds of villagers without water simply because he does not feel like doing his job, which is to pump water when the levels drop.

EFF leader Julius Malema threatened his former deputy Floyd Shivambu that he will spill the beans should he be pushed.

Four Ntabankulu children have been missing for two weeks after disappearing early in November.  The search for Sive, Thabile, Thabisile and Oyintando Sganga, aged between four and seven, has led the family and community members to take to various social media platforms in a desperate bid to bring the little ones back safely.

Last Born Promotions (LBP) has defended Azinga Fuzile’s Filipino opponent Eduardo Mancito after an uproar over his poor record of 16 losses ahead of their international junior lightweight clash at East London’s Orient Theatre on December 15. Fuzile will be looking to close 2024 in style with his second win after stopping Namibian foe Sebastianus Nataneal in August as he bids to return to the world-sanctioning body’s ratings.

Comedian and content creator Kevin Fraser takes a sho’t left to iSaturn in his new show Imagination, but not without his beloved Mzanzi choms. Known for poking fun at SA stereotypes, the viral social-media star will be at the Guild Theatre on December 6, promising a stand-up routine of futuristic satire and local flavour, with some interpretive dance thrown in for the gees.

Some say villagers are lucky to have water tankers delivering to their villages, but others say this is a double-sided curse — to live at the whim of the random behaviour of water profiteers is an anxious, deeply unpleasant experience. Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has stated that criminal cartels, working in the space created by relentless vandalism of government water networks, have taken over.

Armed security guards have been hired to protect water systems in one major Eastern Cape municipality — and it is working. “We can’t carry on spending money on fixing something that was already fixed,” Amathole District Municipality (ADM) mayor Anele Ntsangani said.  Vandalism was being reduced, he told the Dispatch special report team.

The ability of police to curb violence and stock theft in the province has been questioned after a man, arrested in connection with the torching of a headman’s homestead and the theft of 11 cows, escaped from police custody.

Two frustrated Eastern Cape mayors are pleading with the communities they serve to work with them to stop criminals from destroying vital infrastructure.  OR Tambo district mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana and his counterpart at the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality (KSD), Nyaniso Nelani, said the two authorities were bleeding millions of rands due to ongoing vandalism of crucial water and electricity infrastructure.