Only cattle score as pricey soccer pitches go to seed
| Pensioner gets free home, but local sports teams angry about locked facilities
A R4.2-MILLION sports centre adjacent to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead is out of bounds for local villagers — but not for their cattle.
The venue, built at taxpayers’ expense, includes two soccer pitches — one with artificial turf — and tennis and volleyball courts.
The gates have been broken and the fence around the centre has collapsed, allowing cattle belonging to locals and Zuma to graze there every day. Children also occasionally slip through gaps in the fence.
Vejaynand Ramlakan, a former defence force surgeongeneral who was involved in the R215-million security upgrades at Zuma’s homestead, said this week the sports facilities were a 2010 World Cup legacy project.
The legacy programme, managed by the South African Football Association and world soccer body Fifa, provides funding for soccer fields throughout the country.
But Joe Carrim, Safa project manager for the legacy programme, this week denied that the Nkandla facility was a 2010 legacy project.
A local chief, Bhekumuzi Zuma, said this week he had asked the KwaZulu-Natal department of sport to build the complex and to locate it close enough to Nkandla so that it could be used for state functions.
The chief said the issue of the deteriorating state of the sports centre had been raised with the province.
“The grass on the soccer field
People are asking whether this was just a showpiece
needs to be replanted. We’re concerned at the waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
The provincial department of sport, which holds the keys to the facilities, said the future of the centre was under discussion.
“A meeting was convened last year with all district and local mayors to resolve issues pertaining to the maintenance of the sport facilities built by the department in various municipalities, including Nkandla,” said Sandile Qwabe, a spokesman for the department.
But he would not say who would be responsible for restoring the Nkandla centre to a usable condition.
When Sunday Times reporters visited the complex this week, at least 30 cattle — some of which locals said belonged to the president — were grazing on the grass soccer pitch.
Local ANC councillor Sibongiseni Bhengu said the villagers had complained about not being allowed to use the facility.
“People are asking whether this was just a showpiece,” he said.
Bhengu said local schools had complained that the facility was not available to them.
“The government is emphasising the development of sports in schools and here we have a facility that schools can’t use,” he said.
Plans for a local soccer tournament last month were cancelled because of a lack of suitable pitches.