Eersterust community members are up in arms with the state of affairs at the municipal swimming pool on the corner of Steenkamp and Mason lanes.
Rekord went to investigate the condition of the pool on Tuesday.
The smell of the water is unbearable, hundreds of tadpoles and even frogs floated in the water as well as dead birds. The pool was supposed to open its gates to the public on September 1, but to this day, the pool is still inaccessible.
Community activist, Debbie Moses, says that the parties responsible for the management of the pool were not fulfilling their duty towards the community.
“Apparently the pump just needs to be replaced and we were told that chemicals are the solution to the dirty water. We want justice, not only in our community, but in all other communities that are affected in this regard.
“For the past five years, our community has experienced very poor service delivery under the leadership of the DA. Even after numerous reports to our local municipality, nothing is done to our requests,” she said.
Moses said that the community of Eersterust has been neglected for many years by the current councillor who has been elected for another term.
“The residents are well aware of our councillor’s previous performance record for the past five years and can only hope for better service delivery and involvement in general to address the current state of affairs in Eersterust.”
ALSO READ: Hefty sentence for three armed robbery accused
Vinolia Meyer said that the smell, rubbish and dead animals were a disgusting sight.
“The pool was still empty on Friday and now all of a sudden they pump water into the pool.
“You cannot waste water like that as it will make no difference regarding the state of the pool. As you swim, if it happens that you swallow water – we can become ill from this water.”
ALSO READ: Singer Theuns Jordaan loses battle against cancer
Clevan Olifant felt that the councillor blatantly ignored their requests.
“The septic water attracts all kinds of species and insects. The economic impact on the closing of the pool, is a concern.
“In earlier years, the community sold ice cream and sausage rolls here to generate an income.
“We will keep on visiting the site to see if anything has been done to the pool, but rest assured that we will not leave the situation here,” Olifant said
Cleo and Alzano Alexander, who have lived in Eersterust for over 25 years, said the condition of the pool was disappointing.
“Year after year, promises are made of so-called service delivery and these are not kept.
“How are we going to keep our children busy with the fact that the December holidays are on our doorstep? It’s sad to see it go backwards,” said Cleo.
Alzano said it also posed a major safety risk to pool users.
“We as the community of Eersterust must stand together to bring the complaints to the councillor’s attention. Our children do not have the same privileges for using the pool as we once had,” he said.
Another resident, Jean Kruger said that there were a number of excuses why the pool is not in operation.
“All the sports facilities in our area urgently need renovation work.”
According to local councillor Benjamin Lawrence, he has informed the relevant parties responsible for the maintenance of this facility.
“After the retirement of the facility manager, the position was frozen.
“We are still waiting for further information on this,” said Lawrence.
“The extraction pump that helps with the flow of water has reached its end and its replacement was already approved last week. It is only a matter of time before this process is completed.
“The swimming pool cannot function without a manager and we are waiting for feedback from the relevant department regarding the progress,” he said.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said that the insinuation that the pool’s filtration systems has been out of service for the last three years was factually incorrect.
“The pool has been inoperative for less than 15 months, due to the mandatory restrictions of the Covid-19 lockdown levels imposed on the operations of sports and recreation facilities.
“Since the recent lifting of some of the harsher lockdown restrictions, preventative maintenance was conducted in September 2021. Unfortunately, the newly maintained components got damaged following a load-shedding schedule which caused the components to be submerged in water,” he said.
“The regional office has commenced with insurance claim in order to have these affected components repaired. However, the metro is not confident that the facility will be operable by December due to shortage of staff.
“We are looking into addressing this on a short-term basis until these vacancies are filled. The metro will, therefore, not open the facility until such a time it is safe do so for our residents,” Mashigo said.
ALSO READ: Police seek public’s help regarding killings of taxi drivers
.Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
