“PLEASE keep the public pools open throughout the year” is the passionate appeal by the local aquatic community to Buffalo City Metro (BCM) this week.
In the six-minute clip released on Wednesday, swimmers object to a May 31 notice of pool closures “until further notice” which BCM stuck on the front door of the Joan Harrison pool complex.
This was despite a petition signed by 166 local swimmers to keep the complex open.
Amakhosi Club swimmer and Walter Sisulu University television and radio journalism lecturer, Sharon Cumming, 40, who produced the clip “East London Community Speaks Out at Chilly Dip Winter Challenge 2014” said clubs, schools and scores of learner swimmers were summarily deprived of a training and gala venue for up to four months. Closing pools for winter did not happen at other metros and was “irresponsible”, she said.
Within 24 hours the clip had 214 views.
Cumming spent three days producing and editing the clip which was filmed by local cameramen Michael Rusch and William Granzier, assisted by third-year WSU journalism students Loyiso Malgas and Yonela Mgwali.
The clip opens with an aerial view, shot from Granzier’s Phantom 2 quadcopter, which reveals that, overnight, all five pools at “the Joan” were already half drained.
She said: “We interviewed swimmers and a coach and showed happy shots of some of the 80 community members who came together to have fun and one last dip in the Joan on a brilliant, sunny winter’s day.”
Cumming said: “We have national underwater hockey and water polo competitions coming up, schools use the pool for training, galas which could be held are now driven away and many people who go daily to train and keep healthy simply can’t.”
In the clip, Samwu shop steward Zola Capucapu laments the loss of jobs of temporary workers, while a community member says four underwater hockey players in training for national trials have nowhere to train.
Cumming has written letters and met officials for two years, but wrote to mayor Zukiswa Ncitha and municipal manager Andile Fani last week.
“I got no response,” she said yesterday.
BCM spokesman Keith Ngesi was waiting for officials to respond to Dispatch queries regarding the matter.