Collapsed Ekangala stadium ‘was poorly maintained’

The Ekangala stadium in the east of Pretoria was damaged during Monday night’s storm because of a lack of maintenance, it has been speculated, Pretoria East Rekord reports.

The stadium was the only public building damaged by the strong wind that buffeted the eastern parts of Pretoria on Monday evening.

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Tshwane community and social development services MMC Ntsiki Mokgotho visited the stadium on Tuesday to assess the damage.

“Large sections of the roof were blown off and struck other sections causing further damage,” Mokhotho said.

She said the Tshwane metro inherited the facility during the merger with Metsweding district municipality in 2011.

She said in 2012, the city had appointed the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to look into the state of its facilities, and the CSIR indicated the stadium was in a bad state of disrepair and required an upgrade.

The body had also designed a 10-year facilities’ maintenance plan.

Mokhotho said the CSIR found that the condition of the building was overall at 70 percent fair condition.

“It indicated that the deterioration was caused by prolonged lack of maintenance,” she said, adding the CSIR had concluded an upgrade would cost R4.89 million.

“Unfortunately, the previous administration did not undertake the work.”

Mokgotho said last night’s damage was extensive and likely to cost more than the CSIR estimate.

https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/minibus-taxi-crash-in-wynberg-causes-balcony-collapse/

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