It meant that his children would have safe and easy access to a fully equipped play park, situated right across his house.

“I was looking forward to lazy Sunday afternoon picnics in the park, without having to worry about the safety of my children,” he told HERAUT.

The area was previously used as dumping site for household garbage and building rubble, but promised to boast a beautiful, modern eco-park and outdoor gym with a spectacular pond view after completion. Van Niekerk’s excitement soon turned to disappointment and he said the incomplete park is far from beautiful or safe.

“The park is a complete waste of tax payers’ money. It’s dangerous and offers no joy. Where are the swings? Why is installation still incomplete and how exactly was the millions of rands allocated to the project spent?”

These are the questions Van Niekerk would like to have answered by the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE). What angers him is that he now has to monitor his children’s every movement outside, because of hazards such as snakes in the overgrown grass. The fish pond with its deep and murky water adjacent to the park, has also not been fenced off and offers the risk of children drowning.

According to Wollaston Labuschagne (DA councillor) the park was built in accordance with CoE’s Lungile Mtshali Development Programme (launched in 2014) to provide residents across Ekurhuleni with outdoor recreational facilities that include a jungle gym for young children and an outdoor gym for adults.
It is now evident that the contractor has since abandoned the site and while some of the swings still need seats, the gym equipment is still wrapped in plastic and not fully installed.

“This project is another example of how corruption is continuously swept under the carpet by the CoE. Towards the end of last year, the contractor appointed for this project abandoned the site and disappeared – leaving a half-done job and neither the office of the city manager, nor that of the chief operating officer has taken any responsibility for this,” Labuschagne said and added that he does not understand why the contractor is not being held accountable.

“I am led to believe that the contractor was paid the entire R1 million for the project. Yet, not a single metro official has signed off on the project. The park should have been completed by now and officially handed over to the parks department to be included in their operational budget for regular maintenance at the end of 2019,”Labuschagne concluded.

Labuschagne has undertaken to pursue the matter further and to prove that the amount of R1 million has in fact been paid in full to the contractor while work was not finalised.