Vandals cause havoc at Parkside swimming pool

The Ruth Belonksy pool complex in Parkside boasts crystal clear waters but buildings on the property have fallen prey to filthy-minded graffiti artists.

Barbed wire fencing has been ripped away. CCTV cameras are long gone, presumably sold to the highest bidder.

The Parkside pool was refilled with water about a month ago after the lockdown restrictions were lifted, but it has not been officially opened to the public yet.

Parkside resident Scheik Tatchell, who lives directly across the road from the complex, said: “It is traumatising to hear screams and shouts of young children  as late as 9pm. I barely sleep at night because of the noise that comes from the complex.

“The security guards and life guards get chased away by the children. They throw stones at the guards, who end up running to my house. The police came to intervene recently, but they also couldn’t succeed because they were also chased away by the children.”

Tatchell recalled a few incidents where lives were almost lost because youngsters were swimming unsupervised.

He said they usually waited for the lifeguards to knock off, and then forcefully entered the complex.

“There are disturbing activities that these children do. In the morning I would walk in and find used condoms all over the place.”

Tracy Groep, a  security guard at John Bisseker Secondary School, said it was not only the pool complex that got vandalised.

“They come across to the school premises. We try to work as a team and stop these criminal acts, but it is not easy.”

DispatchLIVE found that the complex gates could no longer be locked as the lock had been broken off.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said: “From the preliminary reports that I have received, it looks like vandalism.

“We have the resources to clean and maintain swimming pools of such sizes but we cannot do it if communities are not jealous of their assets and safeguard them like they do with their houses. I will get a comprehensive report tomorrow [Friday]," he said.

The Dispatch has previously reported on damage to other public pools in the metro.

In Selborne, the Dispatch reported on a 40m stretch of perimeter fence around the ailing Joan Harrison pool complex that had collapsed in February.

In Mdantsane, at least R30m has been pumped into a purported revamp of the Zone 2 pool, yet it remains closed, with little to show for how taxpayers’ money has been spent.

The pool has been in a shambles for years. It was last operational before Ciskei’s former leader Lennox Sebe was overthrown in the early 1990s.

On-and-off plans to revamp the dilapidated pool have been talked about since 2007, but  it has been left to fall into ruin and reduced to a dumpsite and a criminals' haven.

DispatchLIVE