More than 200 disgruntled community structures in Gugulethu are expected to join the Gugulethu Sports Council (GSC) in a protest over neglected sports infrastructure.
The GSC is expected to hand over a lengthy memorandum of demands with hundreds in attendance to the mayoral committee member for community services and health, Patricia van der Ross. This comes after the sports council contacted her office regarding the poor state of sports and recreational facilities.
“The Gugulethu Sports Council has done an investigation of community sports facilities in the area and has been shocked by the terrible state of sports facilities. There are vandalised stadiums at NY 116 Luyolo Community Hall that have been invaded and people living there for years; a dry and closed swimming pool at NY 117 and NY62 for years now; and NY 95 Sports Field is terrible,” the GSC said.
The GSC said that sports and recreation facilities were meant to serve the community and children.
“It is for this reason, as GSC, we choose to protest by holding a community march of all citizens of Gugulethu who support this cause, so we collectively raise and report this to the powers that be. It is unacceptable, and sports and recreation is our constitutional right,” the GSC said.
Nceba Sandlana, a Gugulethu community leader and representative of the GSC, said that, for more than five years, none of the community facilities had been functional.
“We strongly feel this has a contribution to the youth of the area partaking in criminal activities. We want to draw the attention of the local government with the hope that they will attend to our community plight. They feel this is long overdue, intervention of this nature is long overdue,” he said.
The Gugulethu community is particularly disgruntled about the state of their facilities when the city has just revamped a pool in Newlands.
The march began at 2pm today, with the memorandum expected to be handed over to Van der Ross at 4pm.