The multi-million rand sports complex at the Naledi village is a crime den that the Middelburg Town Council does not want.
The Middelburg Observer reported on the complex on August 8.
There is a 500m cement cycling track, soccer field, pavilions, kitchen, gym without equipment, and housing that is dilapidated and disused.
“The only sport that was practised there was breaking bottles on the cycling track,” the well-known sports administrator, Riaan Koegelenberg, cynically remarked at the time.
According to him, the gym was equipped with the best equipment. Nobody knows what has become of the equipment.
Mpumalanga Sport has undertaken to investigate, but almost a month later, there is still no feedback.
Seriti Power, which owns the land and complex, is silent as the grave.
Enquiries were sent to Seriti even before the first reports were published, without success.
This was followed up weekly, and on August 20, Tshifhiwa Ramotombu, senior communications officer, sent an email, “Please kindly note that we will provide the response shortly. We were out of the office for the past few days.”
In fairness, Seriti was given a further two weeks to respond, but still without success.
The group was specifically asked to comment on the serious allegation that the neighbourhood’s electricity was switched off to force residents out of their homes.
It now appears that no one wants Naledi, where the sports facilities are, and Lesedi, further down the Van Dyksdrift road, not Seriti and not the Middelburg Town Council.
A source within Seriti said the housing was initially built to house employees of Middelburg Mine.
“Currently, the village is a problem area with illegals living there. These are not the mine’s employees. A lot of criminals live there, and illegal activities take place. It is a really high-crime area.”
September 1 and still no response.
It could not be confirmed whether it is true that Seriti plans to mine the area.
A source within the town council, with knowledge of general council matters, also said that Seriti has bought a stand in the new Dennesig North residential area to move a school there.
The same source said the residential area is so dilapidated that the only thing still operational is the water purification works.
Councillor Deon van der Merwe, who was involved in the negotiations between, among others, Seriti and the Middelburg Town Council, said, “The two villages were built sometime in the 1970s/1980s to house the workers of Middelburg Mine. The mine decided in the early 2000s to hand over the villages to the municipality, because most of the residents no longer worked for them.”
However, the municipality would only take over if the mine carried out the necessary upgrades and town planning.
It was learnt that the costs amounted to R170m.
“The mine refused, and the negotiations collapsed. They then started demolishing the public buildings piece by piece (hall, clinic, gymnasium, hostels) and the power to the villages was cut off at the beginning of July to force the residents out of their homes.”
