R30m and 13 years later, Mdantsane swimming pool yet to reopen

At least R30m has been pumped into supposedly revamping a swimming pool in Buffalo City Metro but it remains closed, with little to show how taxpayers’ money was spent.

More money, possibly running into more millions, will be ploughed into the never-ending revamping of the Mdantsane Zone 2 swimming pool as yet another tender is at the bid evaluation stage.

While the pool is Olympic sized, compared to the R3.9m South Africans paid for former president Jacob Zuma’s “fire pool” at his Nkandla homestead, the R30m raises red flags.

The pool has been in a shambles for years as it was last operational before Ciskei’s former leader Lennox Sebe was overthrown in the early 1990s.

The on-and-off plans to redevelop the dilapidated pool have been on the cards since 2007, but  it was left to fall into ruin, reduced to a dumpsite and crime haven previously.

Over the years, the municipality boastfully announced that the pool would finally be reopened, with millions allocated to the project. Every single reopening deadline was missed with little explanation of how the money was spent — including a R6m grant funding from the EU that mysteriously vanished in 2012.

City spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya would not answer a list of detailed questions on the pool’s expenditure .

But DispatchLIVE records show the once-popular recreational facility has, at least since 2012, been a money guzzler, with opposition parties raising questions on the expenditure.

The metro allocated the R30m as follows:

• In 2012, the EU gave the metro R6m to revamp the pool but city bosses could not account for how the money was spent;
• In 2013, then mayor Zukiswa Ncitha announced a R5m investment to redevelop the pool and upgrade Water World at Leaches Bay. She did not specify how much would be spent on each project.
• In 2016, the municipality allocated almost R3m to the revamp of the pool over three years. R150,000 was set aside for the erection of a fence as part of phase one. Phase two was supposed to be the actual revamp work at a cost of R1.2m, while a caretaker’s house would cost taxpayers more than R1.5m;
• In April 2018, mayor Xola Pakati attended a sod-turning ceremony and announced a R12m investment, promising the pool would finally be fully functional again. How the R12m would be spent was strikingly similar to the 2016 allocation. R3m would be used for the construction of the ticket office, guard house and change rooms, as part of phase one. Phase two was supposed to see two kiddies’ pools upgraded, floodlights replaced with steel floodlights, construction of pumphouses and installation of pumps and filters. This was supposed to be done by June 2019. The construction of grandstands, water polo and diving pools was supposed to be done as part of phase three, with the pool reopened in June 2020;
• In October 2018, Pakati told DispatchLIVE that the R1m they had allocated to the pool had run out before work could be completed. This was after he had been confronted by angry residents at a mayoral imbizo, who wanted to know why work had once again stopped on the pool;
• In 2019, R10m was allocated for the refurbishment, with the city in March 2020 saying only R1.7m was left. This was despite the only visible development being the installation of concrete slab fencing.

When DispatchLIVE visited the pool this week, signs of shoddy workmanship were visible, judging by the concrete slab fencing — which in some parts had fallen down. There was no ticket office, guard house or change rooms, only a small prefab office for the construction company on site.

But excavation work (the digging of trenches, installing water pipes and water connections) was under way, which is the first step before the two kiddies’ pools can be built.

No work has been done on the empty pool, which has cracked tiles. The city previously said the work that had been done on the pool included removing old structures, installing fencing and earthworks.

Mdantsane activist Thabang Maseko, who has been campaigning for the reopening of the pool, said it was “long overdue” that the facility was operational again.

“We had hoped by now we would be taking our children to learn how to swim there, so we are really disappointed that the pool is yet to be reopened.

“If there is anything untoward in relation to the expenditure, we are hopeful that this sixth administration will look into it and ensure that the pool is reopened,” he said.

BCM fails to account for how taxpayers’ money was spent

Eleven detailed questions were sent to BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya but he did not answer them, opting instead for a general response.

Justifying his failure to account for how, and how much, taxpayers’ money was spent, Ngwenya said they would rather focus on the positive impact the pool would have on the community.

“We would rather focus on the promising future and developments of the swimming pool than tracing it back to homeland days when our people were expected to be sardined in a little swimming pool due to the colour of their skin,” he said, despite the pool having been functioning before the dawn of democracy.

“It’s important to note that we are going big on this pool and have earmarked to build a state-of-the-art venue that will add to the many game-changing projects that are repositioning Mdantsane. The pool is the type of infrastructure that the people of Mdantsane deserve.”

The metro has failed to meet all its previous deadlines to get the pool functional again — and now it says it is expected to be opened to the public on May 31 2021.

Vandalism has been identified as the main reason the city has failed to meet the previous deadlines.

Asked whether complaints had been laid with the police, if he could provide case numbers for independent verification, if security guards had been deployed to guard against further vandalism, and if the community had been roped in and awareness raised, Ngwenya failed to respond.

He instead sent DispatchLIVE an extract from mayor Xola Pakati’s state of the city address delivered in July and pointing to vandalism, but did not say what was being done to address the problem.

However, at the time Pakati told DispatchLIVE they would have to consider hiring security guards to prevent further vandalism of the pool. - DispatchLIVE