This is evident according to concerned residents if you have a look at the well known Impala Park soccer field which is filled with broken bottles and glass from the previous Marula festival.

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This has left the soccer field unplayable. Also the cricket nets are full of grass and it seems like it has been a long while since any action has taken place there.

The ring ball and netball courts are much worse, as the playing tar has become unplayable, poles are rotting, dustbins are not emptied and only one court is of any use.

The lights are no longer working and the changing room have become somewhat of a store room for the Community Workers Programme’s (CWP) shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows and other items.

This is the same changing room which was built by the Schutte family for the ring ball and netball players.

“We just need a place to put the tools,” said the CWP’s supervisor.

Many questions regarding the stadium were raised in the public meeting which was held over a month ago, and the Mayor answered that it would be taken care of by Zungu.

When Zungu was approached by one of the sport code players, Hannelie Van der Merwe, she claims he told her that she needs to make an appointment with him, and she further alleges to have done so but it was not successful as Zungu was unavailable.

The toilets for the women are locked and the men’s side has a stench of sewage.

How are players supposed to use such an unhygienic place while they wear Phalaborwa colours when they represent the town?

“We can’t use the men’s toilets because they smell horrible and now my players have to go to the bush when ‘nature calls’,” said Phalaborwa’s ring ball player, Hannelie Van der Merwe.

Hannelie said that they have offered the municipality to fix the lights at their own expense and were told that: “You must have one of our technicians present.”

The municipality informed her that they did not know when a technician would be available.

Furthermore, the live electrical box is uncovered and at any time a child could be playing there during one of the practices and be injured or actually electrocuted.

An email to the municipality was sent by the HERALD and we are still waiting for their response.