The City of Ekurhuleni has consulted with various stakeholders and relevant departments with regards to the closure of swimming pools for a limited period of the 2018 festive season.
This is according to metro spokesperson, Themba Gadebe.
Towards the middle of December, the City of Ekurhuleni announced the closure of all community swimming pools during the festive season.
According to Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Community Services, Dora Mlambo, this was a council decision.
The closure was forced due to the limited number of officials, including life guards, available during this time.
“As a result, the City will be revisiting the council resolution of 2006, which is directing that the pools, as non-essential and emergency services, should not be operational as from December 22 to January 1, 2019,” said Gadebe.
“Due to the need and demand from the public, as a caring and responsible city, that has just been recently named as the best performing municipality in Gauteng, we shall seek a new council resolution that will enable us to have these facilities opened during the festive season as from the next festive season.
“We will ensure that risks and challenges such as crowd control and the health and safety of our communities at these facilities are of high priority, in line with our strategic objective of ensuring a safer and sustainable communities.”
He said the City undertakes to ensure that when the next swimming season begins in September 2019, a new council resolution, which is aimed at addressing the swimming needs of our communities, is in place.
Swimming pools have reopened on January 2 for the rest of the swimming season. As a norm the pools will be operational six days a week – Tuesday to Saturday between 10am and 6pm, and Sunday and public holidays between 2pm and 6pm.
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