A football club says it wants the City of Cape Town to repair a Wallacedene soccer stadium that was vandalised after the City decided to pull security guards from it.
Oostenberg Local Football Association says the City removed the guards from the Blue Ridge Soccer Stadium in 2014 without consulting it.
“ And just after that the criminals started to vandalise it,” said Loyiso Ruthula, the club’s president. “The dressing rooms were damaged and the fence was stolen.”
There were also footpaths now on the pitch where people had been crossing the grounds.
“We really need this stadium,” said Mr Ruthula. “Our aim is to keep children away from the streets and stop then from doing drugs and other bad activities. We are also trying to assist government to alleviate crime in our communities.”
He also urged the community to look after their sports facilities. “It is not only the City’s responsibility to look after them. The community must be involved. If they see someone stealing something or vandalising our facilities, they must report it to the police.”
Suzette Little, mayoral committee member for area north, said the City’s staff had cleaned the vandalised buildings, replaced the fence and repaired the facility’s main building
“There is a small section of fencing that was repaired but was stolen a few weeks later. The City can confirm that there is indeed a security presence at the facility,” she said.
However, when Northern News visited the stadium last Wednesday there was no sign of any of the developments referred to by Ms Little: cattle grazed on the playing field, people were still using it as a thoroughfare, the dressing rooms were still in a state of disrepair and there was no sign of any security guards.
