‘Golf is dying in Daveyton’
Despite the best efforts of a passionate executive committee and members alike, the once proud Daveyton Golf Club is fading into oblivion.
The City Times sat down with members of the committee Ernest Makwe (vice-chairman), Pule Taunyane (additional member) and club captain Keith Kubheka at the club on Friday, February 26, to get an understanding of the problems at the club, as a result of the apparent disregard and neglect by the Ekurhuleni metro.
On Monday, March 14, Taunyane told the City Times that conditions at their beloved golf club, established in 1965, had totally collapsed.
“We have had promises after promises from the metro’s Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (SARC) and nothing is happening,” said a dejected Taunyane.
With a sponsored tournament scheduled for Saturday, March 26, the committee believes that it will lose this last glimmer of support under the prevailing conditions of the nine-hole course.
The committee told the City Times that basic general maintenance of the course, such as the cutting of the grass, is almost non-existent, and when metro employees do tend to the course they usually go home before midday.
“For the course to be playable we need to maintain it, but we realise that we have to rely on ourselves rather than on the municipality.
“The problem is that we don’t have the equipment needed to cover the ground,” said Makwe.
“Even if we can get equipment, we will have to get training and do it voluntarily until the club can become financially independent to employ someone to do the work.
“Cutting of the grass and cleaning of the bunkers is not child’s play.
“Add politics into the mix and it becomes troublesome,” he added.
“They [the metro] used to do the maintenance here, but in the past 20 years or so it has been horrible,” added Taunyane.
Club captain Kubheka added that the club also has a major problem with the fencing that surrounds the course, as a number of people use the course as a thoroughfare from one side of Daveyton to the other.
“We need to keep control, because our golf course is wide open due to theft of palisades.”
The members told the City Times of an alleged incident where, due to the grass being so long in parts of the course and people having free rein of the facility, two men were spotted trying to rape a young girl.
“An elderly golfer saw them while playing and shouted at them and they fled into the location,” said Makwe.
A good club is made on the quality of its greens and fairways, but in Daveyton their irrigation system is, according to Taunyane, 90 per cent non-functional.
“At the moment only three greens receive water,” he added.
Most clubs would rely on their membership base to prop them up, but for the Daveyton Golf Club that is not the case as the majority of their members are unemployed.
“About 80 per cent of golfers comprise adults who are without work, and youth golfers.
“Some of the guys do pieces of work in order for them to come and play freely here.
“On a weekly basis we raise something like R150 on green fees.
“We need to pay the woman who cleans the toilets here and, in fact, we actually owe her money,” explained Taunyane.
“The only time when we get and raise money is when we look for yearly subscription fees to subscribe with the Ekurhuleni Golf Union,” added Taunyane.
“This is one of the few black townships in Ekurhuleni that has a golf course and should be a flagship for the metro.”
Taunyane said that the club’s golfers have to play their “home” handicap and senior amateur league games at Springs Golf Club and totally lose their home-ground advantage.
“Instead, we are always spending money on transporting our players to various courses.
“We don’t worry about going to provincial tournaments because we simply can’t afford it.”
In this regard the club has appealed to private partners to come on board and aid with sponsorship of equipment so that the members can run the club themselves.
There are a number of other problems facing the course, and with transformation in sport a hot topic, the club needs urgent action if they are going to play a role in the development of black sportspeople.
Comment was requested from the metro on Friday, March 4, but at the time of going to press on Tuesday, March 15, no comment was forthcoming.
“We are helpless and have lost every hope,” Taunyane told the City Times.
“Golf is dying in Daveyton.”
If you would like to get involved with the club in any way, contact Taunyane on 078 665 7229.
