Huge asset to city ravaged by theft, damaged by vagrants, left to rot
Abandoned by BCM, Jan Smuts Stadium has no running water or electricity, with all its expensive equipment stolen or broken
THE once iconic Jan Smuts Athletics Stadium has fallen into complete disrepair, with vagrants sleeping in the stadium at night, the building inside burnt by fires being made, and all the equipment stolen.
It is a sorry state of affairs that has seen two major Eastern Cape championships that were scheduled for the stadium this year having to be cancelled, as there is also no running water or electricity or toilet facilities available.
For a stadium that hosted a national athletics event just four years ago, it is a shameful fall from grace that has left the East London sporting community, and schools, devastated.
Border Athletics president Daan Louw took the Dispatch team on a tour of the dilapidated stadium on Tuesday.
“It is really so sad, it hurts my heart that this is what has happened to this wonderful stadium we have pride but not after this,” Louw said.
“They [Buffalo City Municipality] have never been able to give me a proper answer on why this is happening, I really don’t know why.
“This beautiful stadium has been removed from the ASA database as a possible host for national events what an insult to this beautiful city of ours.”
Last year, during a break-in at the stadium, Louw was accosted by an assailant, leading to Border Athletics moving out for their own safety, and since then the stadium has completely fallen apart, with no one on the property to keep an eye on it.
“We moved out in October last year after the break-in when a knife was held to my neck.
“That is when we decided to work from home, as it was not safe to work from here anymore,” Louw said.
“We were already struggling before then, but we were trying, we were making a big effort to try and keep things going, but from then it has just gotten so much worse.”
Two major provincial athletics championships, and money-spinners for the city, have already had to be cancelled at the stadium this year.
The Border Senior Athletics Championships are also not able to be held at the stadium, while no national events will even be considered at the stadium for the foreseeable future.
“The Eastern Cape Primary and High School champs were earmarked for here – that’s 1 500 kids per event, so we would have had 3 000 kids taking part, many from out of the city who would have had to be booked in here,” said Louw.
“These are children, so their families would have also come down to watch, that is money that would be coming into the city.
“To have this place running correctly, you would also create jobs, so I just don’t understand why they are letting this happen.
“We couldn’t even host the senior Border athletics championships here, our own athletes have to go to PE and Boland to qualify for the SA champs, that is embarrassing.
“Last year, they even asked if we would be able to host the South African Schools Championships and I had to tell them that we would not be able to, that was really disappointing for me to turn down ASA,” Louw said.
Adding to all the problems is that all the equipment at the stadium, from the hurdles to the electronic timing system, have either been broken or stolen, meaning that any schools from East London that would like to use the stadium have to bring their own equipment.
“What happened during the ANC congress in January is that they asked to use the stadium and they asked to open the place where our electronic timing device is held. It was supposed to be closed every day but they never closed it,” claimed Louw.
“So when we arrived here two or
three days later, the lens and all the electric cables were gone, so we can’t use it R250 000 worth of equipment is gone.
“Our equipment is stolen. Even though it gets locked up there is no security, so they just break in and take everything, or it is all damaged beyond repair.
“If our schools want to participate they must bring their own equipment, we have nothing left. It is not right. Not all schools can afford to do this.”
A school approached the Dispatch earlier in the week to highlight the problems at the stadium.
Kings College director of sports D J Hayes explained the problems many schools were faced with.
“Seven schools this year that I know of, including us, have had to cancel athletics days because there is nothing there,” said Hayes.
“As a school like ours, which is not well-off and is an independent school, we don’t have our own equipment, so we used to hire the Jan Smuts Stadium and have our athletics days there.
“Since last year, they have no shotputs left, all their equipment has been stolen, there is no running water, no electricity, all the wires have been ripped out, the walls are broken down and even the lines on the track are beginning to fade away, and for some reason BCM won’t spend any money on it.
“I just think that if our youngsters are missing out on the opportunity to use the stadium, it is taking away from sport in the Eastern Cape as a whole.
“When we had the Border Athletics Champs there, every school had to try and plug together what equipment they could get, so we were running with three lanes on the eight-lane track because that is all the hurdles we could get, as all of the hurdles at the stadium had been broken.
“The toilets and generators even had to be hired as well, which is not cheap, it is just not sustainable and affordable for schools and something needs to be done,” Hayes said.
However, Louw believes all is not lost for the stadium.
“If the municipality can come on board and make a concerted effort to rectify the wrongs that have been caused at the stadium, things would be able to return to what they once were, although it will take time.
“I have no doubt that we can fix this, that we can turn it around and get it back to where it was just a few years ago,” said Louw.
“The bottom line is security, security, security we need a massive investment here and we need 24-hour security to keep everything in check.
“It can be done. Look, right next door is the rugby stadium which is in good condition.
“The answer would be for BCM to revamp this whole stadium, fix everything, get 24-hour security in and then hand it over to the Eastern Cape athletics federation to run it. That in my opinion would be for the best.
“They always listen to us, there are people in the municipality that are positive and always say they want to fix things here but it just never happens.
“So what we need is action from all stakeholders from all sports in the city to stand up and help us.
“We all have to come together and demand that the municipality steps in and does something,” Louw said.
Questions from the Daily Dispatch were sent to the municipality for their comment on Tuesday morning and despite a follow-up call and e-mail to request their response, nothing has been forthcoming.
Two major provincial athletics championships have had to be cancelled