Ruimsig Stadium: The plot thickens

A war of words broke out over the weekend of January 12 regarding the goings on at the Ruimsig Stadium, with stadium management insisting on implementing one ridiculous rule after another, while choosing to ignore other rules.

The latest argument between stadium users and management started when a coach came across someone openly urinating against a closed roller shutter door on the side of the stadium. He confronted the man, who walked away completely unfased. He decided to report the man to security, only to discover the security was nowhere to be found.

About 30 minutes later on the track, the coach enlisted the help of a parent to take photos and video of a training session to work on technique. A security officer showed up and insisted that no photos or videos are allowed inside the stadium – a public sports facility. This has many parents, athletes, and coaches baffled as there has never been a rule limiting photography or videography.

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A spat broke out on the Let’s Save Ruimsig WhatsApp group with several stadium users chiming in and expressing their dissatisfaction with this latest rule – seemingly a ruse to stop people from documenting the rapidly decaying state of this once world-class facility. The situation was made worse with some less-than-friendly comments from deputy stadium manager Tshepo Ngcobo.

A short while later, at an area behind the stadium commonly referred to – and used for years – as the warm-up track, security once again showed up out of the blue to inform a group of athletes and their coach that they were to stop warming up there. This left stadium users baffled and another war of words erupted.

These latest developments come as unhappiness mounts over the closure of the stadium for filming for a few days in January. According to stadium manager Tshifiwa Mashau, the stadium was set to be off limits for many days due to filming of the local telenovela, The River.

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Mashau spoke to the Roodepoort Northsider and defended the no photography policy, stating that certain tariffs apply for photography, before informing the Northsider that he would no longer be commenting on anything regarding the stadium, and urged to use a generic City of Johannesburg communications department email address to obtain answers. He would not divulge the name or contact telephone number for a spokesperson.

Mashau did supply the Northsider with a list of tariffs, one of which was for “non-commercial filming” which is charged at a staggering R3 501 per day or part thereof.

The Northsider spoke to several unhappy stadium users, all wishing to remain anonymous for fear of being victimised by stadium management. Complaints range far and wide, from the general decaying condition of the stadium to more specific complaints like the terrible condition of the bathrooms, the fact that residents of the nearby informal settlement seem to have free access to the stadium, openly cutting through stadium grounds as a shortcut, or filling large quantities of water buckets and bottles.

Stadium users are also unhappy with the fact that a full-time live-in caretaker is employed at the stadium, yet there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of caretaking going on.

Just as things were beginning to quiet down on January 18, coaches and athletes showed up for their daily training sessions only to find the gates closed. They were informed that, while they would be allowed to continue with their training sessions, they would not be allowed to park in the parking lot. According to the facility caretaker, this was due to ongoing grass cutting, only there was no grass cutting going on.

Watch this space for more on the Ruimsig Sports Stadium as this story develops.