Rot sets in as municipal-owned building remains in ruins

ROBERT Baden Powell once said, “We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.”

The seeming indifference of the local municipality when it comes to repairs and maintenance appears to have reached out and embraced some of the buildings at Cecil Emmett Park.

A storm some time ago left the roof of the ladies’ bathroom at Vryheid Cricket Club severely damaged and it appears that no attempt has been made by the municipality, who own the building, to carry out the repairs on the building.

According to one of the members of Vryheid Cricket Club, after numerous pleas to AbaQulusi Municipality, they were promised that the damage would be repaired the following Monday. That was three Mondays ago.

The rot and mould have begun to set in at the ladies’ bathroom at Vryheid Cricket Club, and the recent rains have caused further interior damage to the facilities since the roof was blown off in the latter part of 2016.

The following Sunday, when the Vryheid Herald visited the cricket club, there was still no progress and, on March 15, we requested a response from the municipality regarding the state of the building and questioned if there was any plan in place to carry out the repairs, including a photo of the specific building in question, just in case there was any confusion.

“Please advise, is there any plan in place to repair this? If so, when will these repairs be carried out? Is the municipality aware that there will be a cricket festival in the near future which will require the use of these facilities by visitors to Vryheid? What impression does the municipality feel this has on visitors to our town?”

We requested a response by the following afternoon, not even necessarily a detailed response, just some indication as to what the municipality’s plan might be to rectify the situation.

At the time of going to print, AbaQulusi Municipality’s Media Liaison, the elusive Arnold Ramodibe had still not offered any response.

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