Stalled rehabilitation and maintenance work, along with the presence of rubble, algae and even human faeces have left the majority of swimming pools in Buffalo City Metro in a shambles.
A Daily Dispatch visit to four swimming pools in King William’s Town, Zwelitsha, Mdantsane and Parkside painted a grim picture, with only the Ruth Belonsky pool in Parkside fully operational.
This is despite BCM having pumped millions of rand into the facilities.
The swimming pools in NU2 in Mdantsane, King William’s Town and Zwelitsha remain closed despite millions allocated for the rehabilitation and development of some of the amenities around the city. The Joan Harrison swimming pool’s woes are well documented with Russell Tharratt and his family experiencing red eyes, dry skin and discoloured teeth and gums after swimming at the pools on January 4.
This was because the pool’s pH level was far below the recommended pH of 7.2 to 7.8, according to tests Tharratt said he had arranged to be done.
This is what the Dispatch found at the swimming pools:
● The King William’s Town pool was closed for most of last year while it underwent massive, multimillion-rand renovations. There was praise that it would be a state-ofthe-art swimming pool in the city.
However, that all changed with last year’s municipal workers’ strike at the end of the year, with BCM employees allegedly vandalising the pool, stripping it and causing it to be closed. A sign at the venue states “closed due to vandalism”;
● At the Mdantsane pool, work is at a standstill with not a single worker seen on site when the Daily Dispatch visited earlier this week. Land excavators had previously been seen on site digging up old water pumps;
● The Zwelitsha swimming pool is in a terrible condition, although it is still open to the public. However, swimmers are limited to the smaller pool, which is much better than the big pool which has a lot of algae at the bottom. The community claims the pool has been neglected from as early as September last year, and they resorted to using the less greener baby pool. When the Dispatch visited this week, BCM employees could be seen cleaning out filters and water pumps and disposed of what looked like human faeces among a lot of rubble, which caused a terrible stench at the facility;
● The Ruth Belonksy pool was fully functional and was utilised by the community and neighbouring schools. However, they have complained about cold water temperatures, indicating that the pool heater had stopped working for years now.
● The Joan Harrison pool had a green residue at the bottom of the main pool, while some of the pools were cordoned off with tape.
Because of the neglected swimming pools, children cannot learn the life-saving skill of swimming.
Level one accredited swimming instructor Yona Balindlela said developing swimming was a struggle in the city as many pools were neglected by the municipality and were in terrible conditions.
“It’s difficult getting development off the ground because there aren’t enough facilities and the ones that are there are rundown,” she said.
Balindlela said she aspired to coach swimming to rural and township children to boost their confidence in water and to reduce the high rate of drownings.
But the shocking state of the swimming pools has not deterred Ronnie Gubevu of the Mvula Foundation which launched their swimming programme at a Mdantsane gym over the weekend.
Gubevu said the foundation aims to uplift children through swimming in Mdantsane with the use of inflatable pools based at NU1 Border Training Centre, in addition to the 12metre, heated pool available for them at Motion Fitness in NU6.
The foundation hosted their first free lesson at the professional pool over the weekend, catering to more than 50 children from three surrounding schools.
AW Barnes assistant teacher Janice Mahadeo said her school, together with Parkside Primary, have made use of the Parkside swimming pool for more than seven years now.
“Swimming is more than a sport, it’s a life skill, which is why we have encouraged our kids to swim for so long. Fortunately the pool is right here in our community and it is one of a very few well-kept pools.
“However, we would still like to see our pool heated, and this beautiful area filled with other recreational activities,” she said.
The children are coached by Jonas Bohm and Clara Kamper, aged 19, who are from a group of eight coaches from Germany, members of the Allgemeiner Sports Club, a division of the global Weltwaerts Organisation.
“The programme has been running for a while, but we came to South Africa in September and for the duration of our gap year we coach swimming to these children. While there are eight of us in East London, there are 36 others around the country and maybe there would be more if there were more facilities,” said Kamper.
Kevin Horsley said they had a horrible experience at the Joan Harrison pool during a gala attended by his daughter during the week.
“We had to buy her a new costume because the acid ate away at her old one, and she’s been suffering from burning eyes and skin irritations which [required] medication.
“It’s looking green with what looks like faecal matter at the bottom of the pool,” he said.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya acknowledged that their facilities were not perfect.
“Management closed the [Zwelitsha] pool for the weekend, as the pools were not prepared according to our acceptable standards. This then impacted on the overtime which was withheld for staff as the weekly preparations were not fully carried out. The faulty water pipe has already [been] fixed.
“Much has been done in preparation for the revitalisation of the [Mdantsane] pool. A professional service provider (Sky High Consultant) has been appointed for design, concept plans for the pool and management of the project. All the old and dilapidated structures have been demolished. New floodlights have been installed to enhance security.
“Proper operational procedures have been implemented to ensure that all pools are user friendly for the enjoyment of the general public.”
Commenting on the Ruth Belonsky pool, Ngwenya said: “With heaters the pool water temperature will not be much higher as the pool is not an insulated indoor pool. It is an open outdoor pool and will thus lose heat.”
Ngwenya said the Joan Harrison pool was fully operational. “We run maintenance work regularly as the pool is in demand and we close off areas that are affected.”..