Qgeberha<\/p>\n
By Joseph Chirume.<\/p>\n
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With the cold winter season slowly ebbing away and days gradually paving way for summer, residents of Motherwell are hoping that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will fix the Raymond Mhlaba Swimming Pool in time for the warm season.<\/p>\n
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Their concerns are valid given that the pool was last used a couple of years ago culminating in it getting vandalised and gathering moulds as well as garbage.<\/p>\n
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The once vibrant pool used to be a recreational centre for hundreds of swimmers cutting across all age groups. The pool drew people of various backgrounds from the length and breadth of Motherwell, Wells Estate and Colchester, among other high density suburbs of the Metro.<\/p>\n
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It is disgusting that the pool has been left to rot as a result of negligence from its owner, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, by turning it into an eyesore. It is irrefutably clear that the Motherwell pool is in a state of disrepair with green and black colonies of moulds spattered all over the place. The once sky blue clean and glittering water in the pools has turned into dark-blue with chunks of garbage endlessly floating in the water. To compound the situation, an unbearable pungent smell colonises the air polluting the entire place.<\/p>\n
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Such is the appalling state of the situation that officials guarding the place have opted to place locks around the entrances to the pool areas to discourage visitors from accessing the place.<\/p>\n
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The Learn-to-Swim indoor swimming pool is the worst affected after vandals stripped it of every valuable material while turning it into a shell of its original self.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNelson Mandela Bay\u2019s municipal swimming pools are neglected and in disrepair, with the Motherwell Pool being just one of the many across the metro facing similar conditions. This project, which was completed in 2018, cost R4.5 million to build, but has now been left to wrack and ruin,\u201d said Democratic Alliance Eastern Cape Provincial Chairman, Yusuf Cassim.<\/p>\n
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Ntombi Mulaudzi, 16, whose passion for swimming and other water games is deep, admitted that she wanted to take swimming as a profession.<\/p>\n
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She used to take swimming lessons at the Motherwell pool. However, she expressed shock at the state of the pool saying that the amount of money spent on building it should not just go down the drain.<\/p>\n
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Mulaudzi told The Messenger, \u201cIt is costly for me to take swimming lessons and practicals outside of Motherwell because I have to pay transport fare as well as to also pay for the cost of training lessons. It was easier here in Motherwell because I stayed here and everything was free. My parents are not working so I have to do some side hassles to raise transport fares and money to pay trainers and coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
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One of the swimming trainers who spoke on condition of anonymity said the municipality should revive the Motherwell Pool so as to attract the youth from streets where they are prone to committing crime and taking drugs.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is a fact that sport has the power to remove youth from the streets. The idea of a swimming pool in our area was great but it seems people who were tasked to manage the pool were not professional. They hid behind the advent of Covid-19 pandemic for the closure of the pool but we know that they failed to secure the pools. They have also destroyed the livelihoods of workers who were employed to work under the pool.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf they were competent enough the pools should not have been vandalised because there are always people at the Raymond Mhlaba Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
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However all is not doom if what MPL Cassim revealed is anything worth celebrating. Cassim revealed that the Municipality is working on a draft budget proposal of R5.25 million for the 2025-26 financial year to upgrade three pools. The pools include Newton Park (R3,35 million), Raymond Mhlaba in Motherwell (R1 million) and St George\u2019s Park (R900,00).<\/p>\n
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