The weather is getting warmer and the summer holidays are approaching, but the Mdantsane swimming pool in NU2 is still nowhere near completion.
After being derelict for almost three decades, it was scheduled for completion in November a year ago, but at a council meeting last year it was said the contractor was not able to provide a definitive completion deadline.
This May, metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya assured the Dispatch that the pool would be reopened in June.
“The delay in the arrival of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning material also contributed to the delay and slow progress on site,” he said.
Despite those promises, the complex is still not ready.
Sources working for the main contractor said the major issue was a dispute with Buffalo City Metro over money.
A member of the contracting team said: “We were appointed in November 2020 for the refurbishment of the project.
“Another contractor was doing the pipework, and they started at end of February 2021.”
He confirmed the buildings within the pool precinct were complete and fully equipped.
“Unfortunately we had to suspend the work in June 2022 due to the matter of funding.
“We have been waiting for answers from the funders, and nothing is being done.”
The manager said there was a crack in the bottom of the main pool which needed to be fixed and retiled.
The NLG Group had removed the tiles at the end of March, to identify the cause of the crack.
“Professionals came from Cape Town to fix it, and submitted reports to BCM, but we have not heard anything.
“The plan that was submitted did not work, the crack is still there.
“We followed the correct procedures and now we are sitting with a problem.”
On Thursday, the Dispatch visited the precinct to find the 50m pool covered in algae and half-filled with dirty water.
The kiddies’ pool was barely visible in long grass and mud.
The pool was last operational more than 30 years ago.
Since then, millions of rand have been poured into the project, with repeated promises and ever-changing deadlines for its reopening.
Plans for its renewal were drawn up in 2007.
Benard Letsekha, 80, who lives across the street from the pool, said it closed in about 1986.
“My children learnt to swim there. One is now a qualified lifeguard in Gqeberha.
“It is heartbreaking to see it in this state.”
The initial cost of refurbishing the pool was estimated at R10m.
In 2016, BCM set aside a further R3m to revamp the pool over three years, plus R150,000 for the erection of a fence as part of “phase one”.
Phase two was meant to be the actual revamp, at a cost of R1.2m, while a caretaker’s house would cost R1.5m.
In April 2018, mayor Xola Pakati attended a sod-turning ceremony, and announced R12m for the work, promising the pool would finally be fully functional again.
R3m was to be used for the construction of a ticket office, guard house and change rooms, as part of phase one.
Phase two, due for completion by June 2019, was supposed to see two kiddies’ pools upgraded, replacement floodlights, construction of pump houses and installation of pumps and filters.
The construction of grandstands and water polo and diving pools was to be done as part of phase three, with the pool reopening in June 2020.
But in October 2018, Pakati told the Dispatch that the R1m they had allocated to the pool had run out before work could be completed.
In 2019, R10m was allocated for the refurbishment, but in March 2020 BCM said only R1.7m was left.
Earlier this year, the metro said it was spending R20m on the complex.
Ngwenya yesterday said the work on the pool would resume soon and would continue in January, after the construction industry's December shutdown.
“The Metro would like to report to residents that 95 percent of the work has been finished ... The project has, however, faced some challenges ... including persistent rains, Covid-19 lockdown, community protests and contractual disputes ... The disputes have been resolved and the contractor is expected to be back at work in the next few weeks.
“We would like to extend a sincere apology to the residents that are affected by this delay in the completion of this project.”
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