R6m bathrooms cause more than a stink

Spending R6 million on bathrooms at a municipal sporting facility already sounds like a lot of money.

When it doesn’t have plumbing, or a roof, you smell a rat.

The doors and windows are also missing, while the contractor has seemingly not been on the site for some time, as there is no security at the Delareyville sports facility in the Tswaing municipality in North West.

In last year’s budget, the municipality forked out R10 million to add two netball courts and a sports field.

A few months later, the council also decided it needed an additional R6 million to build a new ablution block.

And here we are, sitting with empty promises and incomplete work.

The community – and the taxpayers – are the big losers as we sit with the “same dilapidated stadium”, according to DA councillor Soret Viljoen.

When the community still plays soccer on an open field next to the facility, you know you have a problem.

But, according to municipal spokesperson Osupile Tys, the delays are “primarily due to payment challenges and adverse weather conditions experienced earlier in the year, which affected the planned construction programme”.

We put our concerns to the municipality this week. The next day, “construction workers started putting a roof on the R6 million bathrooms”, according to Viljoen.

How disappointing…