Here’s which public pools in Johannesburg are open and why the others are closed

The weather in Johannesburg is heating up, but several communities are still without a public place to cool off.

The municipality initially missed its Spring Day reopening target for its public swimming pools, then again missed the 1 October revised deadline.

Johannesburg had a full complement of 57 public swimming pools, with the municipality confirming roughly 40% of those would be open by next week.

As of 7 October, 13 of the city’s public swimming pools had been opened, while a further 10 were expected to be ready from 12 October.

“The city will continue to monitor the readiness of all swimming pool facilities and provide further updates as additional pools become operational,” the municipality told The Citizen.

‘Longer than expected’

Community Development MMC Thapelo Amad stated that the majority of recruitment, outstanding compliance, and maintenance issues had been resolved

“The phased in reopening of pools has taken longer than expected. However, the city is now on track to continue opening more pools,” the MMC said.

DA shadow MMC for community development Lyrics Mazibuko explained that in addition to maintenance issues, the recruitment process for seasonal lifeguards and cashiers failed to attract enough candidates.

He said this was a “collapse in monitoring, planning, and preparation”, but added that it was a poor excuse for shutting communities out of key social facilities.

“Where a facility requires major capital works, that should be dealt with through the appropriate procurement process.

“But where the problem is routine maintenance, cleaning, security, water management or basic operational support, the city should be looking at mechanisms that can get facilities functioning much faster,” Mazibuko told The Citizen.

The shadow MMC said the reopening of the remaining pools would depend on the city’s procurement processes, but warned the pools were not in a good state.

“Johannesburg has a significant number of public swimming pools requiring varying levels of maintenance, refurbishment, and operational support.

“We therefore need a clear emergency programme with defined timelines, rather than dealing with each pool reactively,” Mazibuko said.

‘Start managing them as community assets’

Asked whether communities had come forward to take custodianship of their facilities, he said he would support such proposals provided it did not shift the municipality’s responsibilities onto community groups.

“This could include adopt-a-pool partnerships, management agreements, sponsorships, facility activation programmes, and public-private partnerships, depending on the circumstances of each facility.

“The city would retain ownership and oversight, while communities could play a much greater role in ensuring that facilities are clean, safe, active, and protected from vandalism,” said Mazibuko.

However, he explained the bigger issue was that the municipality had failed to create sustainable financial models for maintaining its public facilities.

“We need a lifecycle-management approach. Maintain facilities continuously, generate appropriate revenue where possible, attract private and community partnerships, improve security, and ensure that every facility has a clearly defined operational plan.

“Johannesburg must stop managing swimming pools as liabilities and start managing them as community assets. Our public facilities should be places where children learn to swim, young people participate in sport, families spend time together, and communities build social cohesion,” Mazibuko concluded.

List of open pools in Johannesburg

The pools currently open to the public are:

• Linden
• Blairgowrie
• Florida Lake
• Jabulani
• Orlando
• Pimville
• Meadowlands
• Zoo Lake
• Pioneer Park
• Rhodes Park
• Lenasia South
• Eldorado Park Ext 3
• Lenasia Ext 2

The 10 due to be opened next week are:

• Rabie Ridge
• Dobsonville
• Davidsonville
• Noordgesig
• Jabavu
• Paterson Park
• Sydenham
• Eastbank
• Eldorado Park Ext 4
• Lenasia Ext 10