New plan in place to revive the historic Bob Van Reenen Sports Complex in Krugersdorp

Another attempt is afoot to reopen an iconic sports stadium in Mogale City after it has been closed for longer than a decade, following a failure to revamp and corruption left it rotting.

The community of Krugersdorp and AfriForum Krugersdorp branch has started cleaning up Bob van Reenen stadium in the hope of restoring the iconic venue.

AfriForum district coordinator for the East Rand Butch Blignault and his team will visit the stadium later this week to evaluate its state and discuss the way forward.

Blignault said the funding to reopen the stadium would have to come from the community.

“The idea is the branch in the community will run the project and become self-sustainable,” he said.

“But first we have to assess to see if the stadium is sustainable.”

Freedom Front MPL Amanda de Lange said it wasn’t as simple as that.

“That is a tartan track [all-weather synthetic track].

ALSO READ: ‘Let’s tackle indiscipline in the ANC head-on’, says Ramaphosa

“It’s a very scientific story to build that field and that field has been rotten for years,” she said. De Lange said it wasn’t simply adding a layer to the field.

“We won’t be able to use that field again.

“Not to rain on their parade but they don’t know what they are talking about and now they are creating expectations,” she added.

De Lange said the bathrooms were also in a mess because they were used by a church group who hired the stadium for a while after it was closed for sports.

“Coach Bob van Reenen bequeathed the stadium to the community, but it had to be maintained by the municipality,” she said.

De Lange said Kaizer Chiefs soccer club also wanted to buy the stadium but withdrew their interest when the corruption scandal started to come to light.

“The stadium was income for Mogale City municipality which neglected it,” she said.

Yvonne Jonker remembers the stadium as her happy place where she set many records from 1969 to 1974.

“I trained under Bob van Reenen for six years.

“He saw me running at a school event and approached my parents to train me,” she said.

Jonker competed in many of the 100m, 200m, 400m, hurdles, and long-distance competitions hosted at the stadium. She described Van Reenen as a man who devoted his time to his athletes.

“As a child, I remember the stadium as a prestige field.

“Especially the tartan track – it was beautiful,” she said.

Jonker said the state of the stadium now was a shame. “I knew the stadium like the back of my hand.

“I practised there every day and it breaks my heart to see it now because I reached a lot of my childhood dreams there,” she added.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za