POLOKWANE – Five years ago, the local municipality envisioned a recreational park opposite Tom Naudé Technical High School, partly in an effort to provide leisure activities and to curb criminal activities.
At the time, the municipality said in a statement that a number of activities would be introduced, including soccer and volleyball. It was stated that all sporting activities in the park would be held in pre-determined operating hours so as to not cause a nuisance to school and church activities in the area.
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Five years on, the only sporting activity offered is that of a 5 km jog every Saturday morning, offered by Park Run.
Little has come from the promises of organised sporting activities, and instead, park revellers on weekend nights become a nuisance as they party well into the early hours on Sundays.
With poor lighting, no security and no ablution facilities, several residents have raised safety concerns over what happens in the once envisioned ‘children’s park’, as the municipality referred to the park a few years ago.
In February last year, BONUS sister paper, Review, ran a story on the lack of ablution facilities at the park. At the time, Municipal Spokesperson, Matshidiso Mothapho, explained it was because the park was a multi-year project, and they did not foresee so many residents using the facility while it had not been completed yet.
“The designs of the park have plans for ablution facilities which will be completed in the next financial year when the financial resources are made available. We did not anticipate that people would flock to the facility being in an incomplete state. Following our observation, we are considering or making plans to put up temporary ablution facilities on site,” Mothapo explained.
BONUS approached current Municipal Spokesperson Thipa Selala, who said public drinking and the monitoring thereof rests on the shoulders of the police.
“Like with any other park, people make use of parks and our officials start cleaning after them on Mondays.”
He appealed to those making use of the park to use the bins in an effort to keep the environment clean.
Like Mothapo, Selala confirmed that the municipality has a plan in place to build ablution facilities in the park.
“We are currently working on the design. The next process will be implementation which might take place in the next financial year (our financial year starts in July) if all goes as planned,” he said.
