Movement cleans up Sijongile Ndamase Hall in eMbalenhle

Govan Mbeki Municipality Art and Culture Forum and community members joined hands in a campaign to clean up the vandalised Sijongile Ndamase Community Hall in eMbalenhle on Saturday, February 19.

The campaign resumed on Friday, February 25, where members of the movement and municipal law enforcers removed all drug users from the hall.

Residents said the hall has turned into a drug house where even dealers allegedly traded without fear of the police.

The residents said they were too scared to pass by the community hall because the addicts have taken over the hall and are sleeping and smoking there.

Adjacent to the hall is an old-aged clinic where senior citizens queue outside for their medicine, regardless of the weather.

The state of the hall had been reported to the municipality two years ago, but residents were told that it would be renovated.

Several months later the municipality advertised for a contractor to do the work, where after the municipality will tighten the security.

The art movement said they are now in agreement with the municipality to use the hall until they can begin to renovate it.

Isaac Dlamini, one of the movement’s leaders, said the only way to chase the addicts away and to stop vandalism is to have activities inside the hall.

He said they will begin by daily conducting different art rehearsals.

Dlamini said their challenge now is to repair the doors. All the doors have been broken, but they are still negotiating with the municipality to come up with a temporary plan.

Gert Sibande District Municipality, when presenting its Integrated Development Plan (IDP) at the Lillian Ngoyi Centre in September 2019, budgeted to renovate the Sijongile Ndamase Community Hall but nothing has happened since.

The executive mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, Nhlakanipho Zuma, also visited the hall and inspected the facility in March last year.

When the district municipality was asked when the renovations will resume, the newspaper was told that the renovation money for the hall had been directed to electricity projects in Govan Mbeki Municipality, though it was not clear on how much was budgeted and to which electricity project it was directed.

Donald Green, acting communications manager for Govan Mbeki Municipality, said the municipality is looking at other sources of funding to upgrade and renovate some of the depilated public amenities, including the Sijongile Ndamase Community Hall.

The municipality has also opened a case of malicious damage to property at the eMbalenhle Police Station but no one has yet been arrested.