Roosevelt Park resident Beryl Hook writes:
I was very amused at the article regarding our public pools Joburg’s Community Development Department takes control of repairs and maintenance at pools and recreational centres.
I may be one of MMC for Community Development, Nonhlanhla Sifumba’s rightfully angry residents.
The state of our public pools is shocking.
They may have been 88 per cent ready when she inspected them on 1 September but our local pool at the Roosevelt Recreational Centre was shut down the same week and has not opened since.
This happens year after year during the hot school holidays and a shortage of funds is always the reason given despite her quote that ‘maintenance budget remains unspent year after year’.
We then began to use the next pool, in Greymont, but that was green on 16 October as their pump has also packed up.
In addition, the poolside had not been cleaned and was full of droppings from the Egyptian geese.
The staff are friendly and polite but I am sad to say they spend the day sitting in or outside their office and are totally unmotivated to keep their pool in a decent state.
I will be very interested to see how Sifumba takes on this challenge and wish to assure her that we, the residents, are fully behind her.
