NELSPRUIT – The Mbombela Local Municipality is aware of the dilapidating state of its civic theatre.
They did however refute the claims by members of the public regarding the extent of the neglect at the facility. “In a nutshell, we are aware of the dilapidating state of our civic theatre and we are working towards improving its condition,” said Joseph Ngala, Communication Officer at Mbombela. “We would also stress, that the renovations will be done in phases owing to availability of funds. We will be renovating the stage area during this financial year 2013/2014, and will replace a few drops of the curtains which are damaged. The renovations will include re-painting of stage walls, replacement of tiles, removal of boards covering the stage floor, repairing and varnishing the wooden floor, supplying a ballet mat and repairing the movable steps. Moreover, we will be purchasing a new sound system mixer with accessories like handheld microphones and wired microphones with stands.”
On the issue of the change rooms and lighting problems at the theatre Mbombela responded, “Our plan is to gradually improve the state of the theatre. Our next project will be to deal with the change rooms, lighting equipment as well as the seats. Hopefully these will be done in the next financial year 2014/2015, depending, as we said on the budget.”
Despite many comments on the lack of a service to assist in cleaning the theatre, from various groups who have used the venue for their productions, Mbombela denied the statement. “Regarding the cleaning, there is a contracted service cleaning the whole civic centre building including the theatre. General maintenance of the theatre is being done by two departments, namely the Facilities Management (for the overall building maintenance and supervision of cleaning services), and Social Development (for the technical aspects).”
On the pressing matter of the dysfunctional air conditioning system Mbombela said, “the matter is being attended our Facilities Management. The problem is not necessarily with the theatre air-conditioners, but there is a problem at the air-conditioner plant room, which needs to undergo major repairs and service. The air flow has been reduced due to this problem. As soon as procurement processes have been finalized, then the service will commence with the work.”
When Lowvelder compared the state of the theatre to that of the Van Riebeeck park swimming pool and alluded to the fact that promises made regarding the the latter were never met, causing the public to doubt wether either of the two facilities would indeed be restored to its former condition, Ngala responded rather defensively.
“Please refrain from making sweeping statements that are factually incorrect. The manner in which we are attending to the challenges at Van Riebeeck park has been discussed with the users of the pool as represented by the different federations! The (public) outcry you are referring to, where does it come from? We have informed you many a times as a swimming enthusiast and journalist that indeed we are aware of the problems we have at the pool and we have undertaken to fix them in phases… Ideally, if council had enough money to fix all the problems, we wouldn’t be talking about this now, so this is not ideal. We have already acknowledged that it has taken longer than we would have liked to have the situation adequately attended to, but we are not folding our hands and let things be. Of course all due processes will have to be followed when we procure any service. You must also appreciate the fact that there are more demands than resources. We have, as government, to meet those demands. There are also very basic services that we still have huge backlogs on and we would appreciate it if our residents would bear with us as we address them.”
