Ngcobo residents fear the pool will be vandalised and never reopen

The only public swimming pool in Ngcobo near Mthatha, Eastern Cape, has been left empty for four years. The pool was closed in 2020 during Covid pandemic and has never reopened.

Built in 1934, the pool used to be for whites only, but later opened to all when it was part of the Transkei during apartheid. Schools used it for swimming lessons and inter-school competitions.

Dr AB Xuma Local Municipality spokesperson Sivuyile Myeko said the plan is to refurbish the pool before the end of the current financial year, June 2025. The budget is R200,000.

But community leader Thando Tunce said the municipality has been promising to renovate the pool since 2013.

"I'm one of the people who learnt how to swim in this pool. We would travel from the village to come here to learn how to swim. There was an entry fee of R1 and being here used to keep most kids out of trouble," said Tunce.

He said the community had delivered a memorandum to COGTA (Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) raising the issue.

There is also a sports facility, but Tunce says: "In 2011 our municipality destroyed that facility saying they are going to refurbish it. Millions were spent and that facility is worse than it was before. It can't be used and has been vandalised."

He says residents fear the same fate will befall the swimming pool.

Lungelo Nyamakazi, who has lived in Ngcobo since the 1980s, said the pool previously closed for an extended time in 1996 for renovations.

"I don't remember the year it was open again, but it was not for too long, before it was closed again," said Nyamakazi.

Alison Schultz, who used to live opposite the pool, said her father, Lionel Webster, used to be the school headmaster and worked with the municipality to maintain the pool area. She said there were beautiful trees. A couple of years ago, she visited her old home and was shocked to see the state of what used to be a green public area where children gathered and learned to swim.