Joy over R12m pool cash boost
R3m first phase for revamp already started in M’sane
YEARS of waiting for a properly functioning swimming pool could be a thing of the past for Mdantsane residents following a sod-turning ceremony of a R12million revamp project yesterday.
Buffalo City Metro mayor Xola Pakati said the first phase of the pool revamp is expected to cost R3-million with work currently under way.
Municipal services political head Helen Neale-May said Phase 1 will include temporary fencing, construction of the ticket office and guard house and change-rooms.
There will also be the construction of a caretaker’s cottage, demolition of structures to make way for new ones and temporary seats that, according to Neale-May, is expected to be completed by December after which the pool will be open to the public.
Phase 2, Neale-May said, would be completed in June next year and will include upgrading of two kiddies pools and replacing floodlights with steel floodlights, construction of pump-houses and installation of pumps and filters – among other changes.
Phase 3, she said, will see the construction of grandstands, water polo as well as diving pools.
Pakati said the project is expected to be complete by June 2020.
“We want to make this area a sports precinct as we have just completed Orlando Stadium right next to the pool.”
He said there will be job opportunities for people in the area during the construction phase and when the pool is operational.
Pakati said the matter of the neglected pool had been raised a lot during IDP roadshows with people asking what had happened to the money that was set aside to revamp the pool.
The Daily Dispatch reported last year how the swimming pool became one of the talking points during a launch of the Black Business Forum. Attendees wanted to know what plans if any, were made to revive the pool, built in the 1960s by late former Ciskei leader Lennox Sebe.
The municipality at one stage had ambitious plans to renovate the pool in 2009 as part of the Urban Renewal Programme.
In another Dispatch article in 2012, it was revealed how councillors demanded an explanation from officials after R6-million earmarked to repair the dilapidated pool went missing.
It was stated in a report during a council meeting at the time, that when the rollover adjustment budget was presented, councillors were shocked to find the R6-million donated by the European Union not reflected. It is unclear as to what became of the money.
DA councillor Bill Gould said the project had been a long time coming. “The mayor is good at sod-turning but we never see completion of projects. We need to come here before the end of the year and hand this project over to the community,” Gould said.
Tembinkosi Tataye, 35, said he enjoyed swimming at the pool when he was younger. “I used to swim here and pay 5c at the gate. We had fun and there were swings and merry-gorounds and we were guarded,” he said. Tataye said not having places to play when the pool stopped operating led to some being involved in criminal activities. “The closure has deprived our children of learning the important skills of swimming,” he said. —