Durban - It will cost close to R23 million to fix the children’s pool on Durban’s beachfront which has been in a state of disrepair for the past few years.
The eThekwini Municipality, under its Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) unit which manages the pools, only has R3m to fund the repairs and would need an additional R20m.
The report on Children Amusement Centre (CAC) pools tabled before an executive committee meeting recently, revealed that it could take up to three months to rehabilitate the pool and ensure that it was available for use during the Easter holidays next year.
There was extensive damage to the pool and parts of it have to be rebuilt from scratch, according to the city.
The municipality has come under criticism over its failure to manage or fix the pools especially amid the closure of some beaches because of
E coli contamination. The city revealed that two more beaches in eMdloti area have been reopened after the Department of Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs gave the green light. But the city’s premier beaches, Bronze and Main in uMhlanga remain closed.
Dr Musa Gumede, deputy city manager responsible for Community and Emergency Services, said the children’s pool was in need of extensive repair work. “The pool was damaged some time ago, from 2020 we did costing and we have assessed that the issue is mostly around the pump station and the area which houses the pump station,” he said.
The report tabled requested additional funding for the pool. It noted that domestic tourism was the foundation of the tourism industry in Durban, and that tourism development was a priority for the eThekwini Municipality, as the city was the most popular destination of choice in KwaZulu-Natal.
“EThekwini Municipality can offer an excellent beach tourist attraction if the swimming pools along the golden mile have supplementary bathing facilities. Based on this hypothesis, this report proposes to rapidly repair the CAC pools to offer the beach tourist supplementary bathing facilities to the beaches.”
The report said for the 2022/23 financial year, the PRC unit had been allocated R12.2m. It added that R7m had been allocated to the repair work on the Rachel Finlayson pool, contractors were appointed recently and have started work on the pool and it is expected the work will take about a month. In addition, R1.8m was allocated to the promenade toilets.
“Based on the analysis of the budget, PRC has R3m that is still to be allocated; it is estimated that the amount will be allocated to the rehabilitation of the CAC pools,” said the report. The report, which was approved by the executive committee, noted that R23m in total was needed to fix the pool therefore it resolved that the Chief Financial Officer source the additional R20m that was required.
DA councillor Yogis Govender said the DA was inclined to support the plan for the simple reason that “we have been chasing the Rachel Finlayson and eThekwini pools debacle since 2017”.
On the additional R20m to be allocated for the refurbishment and rehabilitation of the pool, she said: “It’s an embarrassment and a sad indictment on this tourist destination for our beachfront to look so derelict.”
She criticised the ANC for blaming all infrastructure decline on the floods, saying the city’s management needed to be held accountable for the deterioration of the city’s pools.