The City of Cape Town must do the right thing and restore Bellville Athletics stadium so that our children and athletes can participate in constructive activities, says the writer.
Image: Tracey Adams / IOL
By Wesley Neumann
Over the years, the City of Cape Town has neglected its athletics facilities to the point that Green Point is the only one in the Metro that complies with safety requirements. All of Vygieskraal, Parow, Blue Downs, Mandela Park, Westfleur and Bellville athletics tracks are non-SASREA compliant and falling into disrepair.
These are not the kind of things the City mentions when it markets itself as the "City that works for you" and the "best-run City in Africa". But let’s be clear, the overwhelming majority of Cape Town’s residents remain systematically excluded from equitable access to services. The City makes up for its skewed service provision practises with a combination of lies, alternative facts, fake news and propaganda – which many in the middle class choose to believe.
The City’s recent manoeuvring to “explain” the neglect of Bellville Velodrome is a good case in point. The fact is, Alderman James Vos’s explanation would better be called a diversion, or a cover-up, or a manipulation… The day after GOOD was involved in launching the ‘Save the Bellville Stadium’ on change.org petition, which attracted more than two thousand signatures in the first 24 hours, Vos released a media statement headed: “Green Point Athletics Stadium on track for world-class upgrade”.
He proudly proclaimed that Green Point “is the only City-owned athletic stadium in the metro that meets Safety at Sport and Recreational Events Act (SASREA) compliance”. Furthermore, the Green Point facility was blessed with other “notable uses”, including “being a warm-up venue for HSBC Cape Town 7’s rugby teams, and being the start point for the annual Cape Town Cycle Tour and the Spar Ladies Road Race”. That’s wonderful for Green Point, but what about everywhere else? Let’s examine what Vos doesn’t say.
He didn’t say that when big events like the cycle tour come to town, Green Point Athletics Stadium is closed to the athletics community for weeks at a time because of the logistical set-up required. He didn’t mention the impacts of concerts hosted at DHL Stadium, or the E-Prix, on local athletics. He didn’t say that when rugby and soccer are played at DHL Stadium, the athletics track cannot be used by the athletics community because activities in DHL stadium supersede athletics events. And, of course, he didn’t explain how it had come about that no other athletics tracks in the City are SASREA compliant.
Perhaps we should be grateful that in his excitement to “sell” the City’s brilliant work in Green Point, Vos let it slip that none of our other athletics tracks are fit for use because of institutional neglect by this DA-led City that works for you. Alderman Vos: speak no lies and claim no easy victories. Where does the athletics community turn for help when, just two weeks ago, the Western Province Athletics competition had to be held in Paarl because there was no facility available in Africa’s best-run city? Sadly for the people of Cape Town, Vos is not the only manipulator of the truth in the Civic Centre.
The Mayor recently announced that the City was considering plashing R30-million for a temporary roof for a UFC fight at the Cape Town Stadium. What about Vygieskraal, Mr Mayor? Five months after a large section of roof at Vygieskraal blew off in a winter storm, the city hasn’t even had the decency to remove the roof, which is still lying on the track, posing a serious safety risk. This is not just fiscal mismanagement; it’s a betrayal of the people who deserve real solutions.
What’s the point of locating the only legally compliant athletics track in Green Point when it is hardly available to be used by the intended group (athletes)? Who makes this kind of decision? The City must do the right thing and restore Bellville Athletics stadium so that our children and athletes can participate in constructive activities. If Alderman Vos cares about the people of Cape Town he must go off-script, for once, and do the work that is so obviously needed.
* Wesley Neumann is a GOOD councillor in the City of Cape Town.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.