Sports facility worth millions turns into white elephant

LEEUWFONTEIN – Residents of Leeuwfontein outside Marble Hall within the Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality demand answers after a sports facility project in the area remain incomplete.

The sports facility project, worth over R10 million, started taking shape about four years ago to cater for development of talent among young people in the area.

It is fast turning into a white elephant and the residents fear for their safety as they complain the site might be taken advantage of by criminal elements.

Residents further complain that children play dangerously at the site with deep unmonitored trenches, climb the high mounted steel water storage tank and the fast dilapidating building meant for toilets and changing rooms.

Seun Mogotji, Bolsheviks Party of South Africa (BPSA) leader, an opposition in Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), said the party noted with disappointment the wasteful expenditure in the local municipality as the officials of the ANC in the area appeared as they could do as they pleased.

Mogotji said if there was a need to spend money in erecting a sport facility in the area, the project needed attention to see its completion and functioning for the development of the community.

“However, actions of the authority behind the project seem inconsiderate as the project is left incomplete and serving no purpose to the community,” said Mogotji.

Mogotji vowed that the BPSA would take measures to see to it that the project was completed and that those found to be doing wrong in the processes were brought to book.

Solomon Maila, Democratic Alliance (DA) Sekhukhune Caucus leader, said the problem with incomplete projects across the district was intrinsically linked to corruption.

Maila said that was the reason the contractors abandoned projects’ sites without completing the work they were initially contracted for.

“They don’t get pursued by the municipalities in order to recoup the public resources expended on projects,” said Maila.

Maphefo Makola, a community leader, said they took note of the disappointing state of the project. However, Makola said they were not surprised by the project’s incompletion problems because they had been made familiar with the new culture of colonial dispensation.

“Surely this is not the last under a corrupt leadership,” concluded Makola. When asked on the developments with regard to the project, Jan Phasha, Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality Spokesperson, said the contractor on the project had has been appointed and would start work in January next year (2021).