Concentrate on achievable goals

IT is lamentable that so many well-intentioned projects aimed at enhancing and invigorating poorer communities in Nelson Mandela Bay are sitting on ice.

Badly needed upgrades to sports facilities, along with attention to important existing cultural precincts such as the Red Location Museum and initiatives like the Pebco Three memorial, all are on hold, causing understandable frustration.

This is because there is simply not enough money to complete them – budget cuts and constraints which, in many instances, will not see a turnaround anytime in the near future.

It is a classic Catch-22 situation because of pressing issues such as burst water pipes which, given our precarious drought predicament – with dam levels dropping by the minute – must take precedence.

What is clear, however, is this waiting list is overcrowded – with more jobs being added all the time as the municipality embarks on a seemingly impossible mission of playing catch-up.

Instead of trying to spread depleted funds thinly all round, the only solution appears to be to accept that some of the ventures – especially those still in the planning stage – will have to be put in mothballs, at least for the foreseeable future.

What money is available should then be pumped into upgrades which can realistically be completed, so at least the city is making progress and delivering on some of its promises.

While we understand the sentiments of sport, recreation, arts and culture committee chairwoman Siyasanga Sijadu, who wants budget and treasury to reconsider the suspension of some projects because they offer hope, at the same time if they do not materialise, the outcome is little different.

A strategy to concentrate on achievable goals will at least result in visible facility improvements and create a sense of commitment to the longer term projects.