POLOKWANE – Austin Makamu, General Manager for the provincial cross-country team, says they left Polokwane for White River from the departmental offices on the Friday morning in four buses and everything seemed well planned.
“The department provided the food and the attire for all 160 participants and 32 coaches and managers. This was an indication to us that things had been planned properly and we never even considered that accommodation would be a problem.”
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After they had departed for White River, Makamu said they were informed of an “issue regarding the accommodation” in that not enough space had been booked for all the athletes. They were, however, given the assurance that the matter would be sorted out by that evening. After attending the opening ceremony of the championships, however, the problems started.
“We called the department at roughly 19:30 and we were told to hold on as they were finalising accommodation. We waited for two hours before making more calls to try and understand what the issue was.”
At this point, Makamu told BONUS, it was already around 22:00 and the athletes had not eaten anything since their meal on the bus earlier that day.
“The agreement was that we would eat wherever we were staying over. It was difficult to make a plan since by that time all the food outlets had already closed up shop for the day.” Makamu said they then used their own money to buy fast food. “During this time, communication with the department was still ongoing but nothing was working out.”
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He said that no one from the department explained to him what the problem was. The next morning, at 01:30 he received a phone call saying the department had only managed to secure 12 beds at a lodge in Hazyview that were to be shared among the 182 learners and their coaches and managers.
“The problem was not only the number of beds but also the distance. It is a 50 km drive and the buses were only allowed to travel within a 10km radius once we got to White River. At this point, we considered driving back to Polokwane that, but the drivers were tired and said they could not make the journey back.”
Makamu said the group went to the championship location, asking to sleep at the premises.
“When we got there we were told the buses are not allowed inside. We parked on the side of the road and everyone slept in the bus. When we woke up in the morning we decided to withdraw from the championships.” He said it was atrocious that learners had no food to eat and no place to sleep, and that it would have been unfair to enter them into a competition under these circumstances.
“We used the public toilets at a filling station just to brush our teeth and we got back on the road to Polokwane that Saturday morning.” They have requested intervention from SADTU and will be laying a formal complaint soon, he told BONUS.
Departmental Spokesperson, Sam Makondo said an investigation was underway. Union Provincial Secretary, Sowel Tjebane said it has become a tendency for the department to not organise proper amenities for learners during provincial activities. “We have been raising these kinds of issues with the department consistently, to no avail. The department needs to be able to take responsibilities for their actions and ensure that this never happens again,” he said.
“How do they expect learners to perform at their best? This, after learners left the province to represent our province,” he said.
