The Sunward Park Cricket Club and Sunward Park Tigers Soccer Club, both non-profit organisations, that use the Sunward Park sports grounds are concerned about the increase in rental costs recently effected by the City of Ekurhuleni.
Chairperson of Sunward Park Cricket Club, Marinus Vollenbroek, said the increase is too steep.
“The increase puts our rental fee at R8 600 per month. I remember when we introduced the cricket club at the sports facility, we didn’t pay rent at all, but now things have changed. I think the main reason the metro is increasing the rental fee here is that there is a privately-owned soccer academy that wants to take over the sports facility. We discovered that recently,” said Vollenbroek.
He added that the owner of the academy approached them and said the rental fees have been increased and they must leave if they can’t afford the rental.
“Our team raises R15 000 every season because every player in our team has to pay an R1 000 club fee. Surely we cannot use that money to pay rent? We use all the money to maintain our cricket pitch and buy kits and cricket equipment,” explained Vollenbroek.
On the other hand, the chairperson of Sunward Park Tigers, Ntombi Majoko, said their club was not established to make money but for the purpose of giving young players a chance to play soccer and develop their game.
“This is a community club that keeps children away from smoking illicit substances and doing unlawful things. Although our players are paying a club fee of R2 500, we cannot afford the increased rental fee because we use the club fees to pay some of our coaches, maintain the pitch and pay the referees that officiate our matches,” he said.
“The metro must know that sporting codes are as important as a school in a community because any child that participates in sport becomes disciplined. We are thinking of moving our club from this facility because we can’t afford the rental fee, and that is not good for the community of Sunward Park, as our club plays a vital role in the community.
“Money from club fees is also used to fix things that are vandalised or stolen at our sports grounds. The facility is continuously vandalised and broken into and I think the metro should do something about that rather than increasing the rental fees.”
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He added that Makopano Security is supporting them in trying to keep criminals at bay, which they are grateful for.
“They have installed an alarm system for us but it would be even better if the metro could employ security guards at the sports grounds.”
Metro spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said rental fees at all sports facilities were increased in line with a directive from National Treasury.
“The circular allowed the metro to increase the tariffs by up to 4.8% and the tariffs were rounded off. The metro also increased some of the tariffs due to the high maintenance cost of the facilities. We are aware that some parts of the Sunward Park sports grounds, including the squash courts, were vandalised during the lockdown.
“However, this was not due to the metro turning a blind eye to vandalism and crime, it was because of the financial constraints the metro was facing,” said Dlamini.
He stated it was only the Sunward sports facility that was vandalised during the pandemic. Some of the facilities had security personnel before lockdown. Due to the re-routing of funds to address the challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, requests for the deployment of security couldn’t happen because the metro was addressing pandemic issues.
“The metro has experienced budget constraints in the current medium-term revenue and expenditure framework (MTREF) due to other public needs. Funding will be considered for sports facilities in upcoming years.”
Dlamini added that regarding the squash club, the metro has received an application from BTB Squash Coaching Academy for the lease of the Sunward Park Squash Club and this is still under consideration.
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