WHAT was once an ultra-modern state-of-the-art sporting facility in the heart of the metro’s northern areas, is now nothing but a glorified ruin and things are getting worse by the day.
The Finnis Street Sports Grounds in Ward 35 has become a health and safety hazard, due to constant vandalism and theft. To make matters even worse, thieves are now destroying the building by literally taking it apart brick-by-brick in broad daylight, without even covering their faces.
The impressive architecture that used to set this facility apart from others in the northern areas, has now become a pile of rubble with only certain parts of the building still standing.
Half of the roof of the clubhouse and that of both ablution blocks have been removed; the burglar bars, windows and railings of the staircase outside the clubhouse have been stolen and shards of glass and broken roof tiles are scattered everywhere. The walls of the buildings have also been covered with graffiti.
When PE Express recently arrived at the facility, accompanied by resident and traditional leader, Khoisan Chief Crawford Fraser, a group of young boys were caught red-handed trying to vandalise the building even further. When they were chased away by Fraser, most of them scattered in different directions, while others didn’t even bother to run.
“Can you believe that some of these guys didn’t even move when they saw me? If they don’t even have respect for adults, then we won’t be getting anywhere,” Fraser said.
“The condition of this facility is a concern for us as a community. You can already see that people are loitering here.
“It could become a haven for criminality. Girls and women can get raped here. Things can’t go on like this,” he added.
According to Fraser, who also forms part of the Ward 35 neighbourhood watch, they have received countless messages in the early hours of the morning about vandalism, theft and loitering at this facility.
“You won’t believe how many times we have been called out at, for example, 04:00, but when the national curfew was implemented, we couldn’t patrol anymore.
“Even the poor caretaker can’t do anything. His life is in danger as he had been held at gunpoint so many times. We, as a neighbourhood watch, are at our wits’ end. We don’t know what to do anymore.”
Fraser mentioned that when the building was still in its original state, before all this damage, the security officials were taken away.
“We made a suggestion to the sports, recreation, arts and culture directorate to employ members of the neighbourhood watch and register them as EPWP workers, to act as caretakers of this facility, but nothing came of that,” Fraser explained.
“We know that if there is visibility, crime reduces and that is what should have happened before all of this. Our community wants to take care of this place and the least that the municipality can do is to employ and pay those in the vicinity of this facility that want to help.”
Another resident, Khoisan Chief Mohamad Blouw, said that an intervention is needed before tragedy strikes.
“One day, someone is going to get hurt here. Something may fall on a child or a body will be discovered. It’s time to take action.”
Ward 35 Councillor and MMC for sports, recreation, arts and culture, Helga van Staaden, said that the Executive Mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, has appointed an anti-vandalism steering committee to address vandalism holistically.
Part of its mandate is to engage communities for active participation to prevent further vandalism of municipal assets.
“Vandalism has escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, but we cannot look past the fact that municipal assets have always been targeted by vandals,” Van Staaden explained.
“Some buildings have been secured by the safety and security directorate and more security will deployed soon.
“However, community mobilisation is key to prevent any further decline of assets that are supposed to benefit everyone,” she said.
Van Staaden added that, up until 2018, the sports sub-directorate had spent almost R4 million to rebuild boundary walls at this facility and repeatedly replaced and repaired plumbing, electrical work, security gates and many other items that were stolen and broken down by vandals. “Several cases have been reported to police, but no report back has been received.”
