WHILE the Sol Plaatje Municipality has given the assurance that all municipal swimming pools in the city will be opened to the public by mid September, it appears that nothing has been done to repair the extensive damage at the R6.77 million revamped Florianville Swimming Pool.
Municipal spokesperson Thoko Riet said yesterday that it was planned that all city pools would be reopened for the summer season on September 16.
She added that the pools had been maintained during the winter by the municipality’s maintenance section.
“Most of the work, however, only started this financial year when funds were availed.”
According to Riet, the maintenance section had encountered delays in finalising the necessary maintenance work “due to constant strike action by municipal workers”.
Photographs posted on social media this week by Faried Joseph, chairperson of the Floors Swimming Club, showed, however, that no work at all had taken place at the Florianville pool to repair the facility after it was vandalised in December last year.
The pool currently has no water, most of the windows are broken, while the water pipes and taps that were ripped out of the walls have also still not been repaired.
“Promises were made that the pool would be repaired for the new season,” Joseph added.
He pointed out further that the pool was supposed to have been renamed after Brian Hermanus.
“The public were allowed to use the facility in December last year after we put pressure on the municipality to allow the community access. It was handed over by the contractors a few months earlier but the municipality was waiting for the official opening and the community was becoming frustrated. At the time, the mayor stated that the official opening and renaming would take place at a later date but this has never happened.”
Severe vandalism shortly after it was opened, however, saw the pool being closed again.
During repeated break-ins, every window was smashed, doors are missing and in some instances only the door frames remained, water pipes and taps in the showers were ripped out of the walls, resulting in the flooding of the changerooms, the seat numbers on the pavilion were ripped off and thrown into the pool and the wires on the main circuit board were stolen, leaving the complex, including the swimming pool pumps, without electricity.
Even light fixtures and electrical cabling were removed, while cement tables and chairs that had been placed on the grassed area around the pool were ripped out and smashed.
Joseph said at the time that little had been done by the municipality to secure the pool and prevent access after hours. “The spikes, which were supposed to have been installed on the fence to prevent people from jumping over, were only put up on one section of the wall. There were no burglar bars on the windows and the alarm system, which used to work before the revamp, was never re-connected.”
Joseph pointed out that there was no way that the pool would be ready to be reopened, as promised by the municipality, in the next two weeks in time for the summer season.
“There has been no work done at the pool by the municipality except to drain the water. This, however, has also presented additional problems because it is a fibre-glass pool and should not stand empty. The municipality will need to get an expert in to determine what the best course of action would be in this situation.
The pool was revamped after the money was availed by the national Department of Sport and Recreation for the upgrading of sport and recreation facilities. The successful service provider was appointed in March 2017 and work commenced the following month.
Besides major upgrading, the pool was converted to an Olympic-size short course to allow for the hosting of national events.
Riet meanwhile said yesterday that the official launch of the pool still needed to be confirmed with the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. “It was just opened last year so that the public could utilise the facility.”