FOOD SERVED NEXT TO TOILETS
Community enjoy little benefit from the facility
The King William’s Town Lions Club received a shock last week after their access to the Breidbach Community Hall was denied.
The Lions were planning to use the hall to run a soup kitchen for needy residents and children.
Lions members Peter Moses and Ryan Von Abo arrived at the hall with the food for their monthly soup kitchen, along with about 420 people waiting to be served, and discovered the hall’s doors were locked.
Moses made numerous calls to Ward 44 councillor Sixolisiwe Ntsasela, but they all went to voicemail.
He was than advised to contact a person in charge of the hall who told him they were not aware of any arrangements made for its usage.
“This is totally unacceptable. “I personally visited the municipality and made the arrangement with the ward councillor, where I also submitted the dates of our soup kitchen till June this year,” Moses said.
“What I also find strange is that we used the hall last month without any hassles whatsoever, so why now?”
The Go! & Express tried to contact Ntsasela and her office assistant, Lusanda Nodaza, for comment but received no response before print deadline.
Moses said he had to move the soup kitchen to the back of the hall, near the toilets, in order to serve food.
“We first had to sweep and remove the rubbish before we started feeding the people, which I think is unacceptable,” Moses said.
“In future, we will have to seriously reconsider continuing with this soup kitchen or taking it somewhere else.”
One of the senior citizens at the soup kitchen, who asked to remain anonymous, said the community hall had become a white elephant, with the community not enjoying any benefit. “The last time we used the hall was for a community meeting in December 2018.
“We were fortunate last month when we used the kitchen. There is also nobody working here,” she said.
Ward committee member Tully Winnaar said she reminded Ntsasela last month about the soup kitchen date.
“I am also aware of the dates submitted for the Lions Club soup kitchen and reminded Ntsasela about it but this time I was out of town,” Winnaar said. “I will get a copy of the dates and make sure it never happens again.”