Municipal facilities rentals need review

Municipal sports fields and halls foster feelings of community and civic pride, which contributes to building vibrant communities. Such facilities are common worldwide where residents gather for large group activities. Yet it emerged on Wednesday at a mayoral committee meeting that existing tariffs deter residents and organisations from hiring these facilities in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Not only does this hurt the municipality’s bank account but it makes it harder for communities and organisations to gather under one roof.

While tariffs for various facilities will differ, a review is on the cards for renting out facilities after the proposed construction of two new multipurpose centres sparked a welcomed conversation at the meeting on Wednesday.

The proposed construction was presented in a report by sport, recreation, arts and culture political head Bassie Kamana. He said the department appreciated the move to construct the centres but the state of the city’s facilities did not justify the amount of money required for their rental.

“This was a problem during the Easter weekend because clubs wanted to use the sports fields at some, and the ablution facilities are not working, but they are required to pay a huge amount to rent such a place,” he said.

Kamana is right. These facilities have been trashed by criminals through barefaced theft and vandalism.

Usually, when looters invaded a building, it was stripped of its doors, floodlights, geysers, electrical cables and switches, copper pipes, windows, ceiling boards, pipes, burglar bars, drain covers, roof tiles and office equipment such as computers.

So then why are tariffs charged to rent out municipal facilities so high? Mayor Retief Odendaal has also questioned this, saying there is an urgent need to review the tariffs before the start of the new financial year.

Odendaal has tasked budget and treasury political head Kabelo Mogatotsi to organise a meeting to discuss the problem.

This should be a simple affair as complaints are often being made about the costs.