Our sporting facilities are deteriorating!

Firstly, they are not maintained as they are supposed to be, and secondly, they are overused throughout the year. In the past Sedibeng had great sporting facilities but lack of maintenance or being misused saw them deteriorate.

The only best sporting facilities we are still left with here in Sedibeng belong to two institutions, VUT and NWU Vaal. There are no more good sporting facilities left especially in our township because of the above-mentioned factors.

When township schools host sporting events they must go to town because in the area they come from there are no proper sporting facilities. In the past, Kwa-Masiza Stadium, Zone 7 Stadium used to host schools’ athletics meetings and other football activities but not anymore.

Kwa-Masiza Stadium has become a car spinning ground. In the past this venue used to host the high-profile football activities and schools’ athletics meetings. TOUCHLINE still remembers as if it was yesterday when we used to pack the venue to capacity when there were schools’ athletics meetings. The atmosphere was unbelievable, electrifying with the whole Vaal Triangle packed to the venue to support their respective schools.

Another venue that has become a shadow of its former self, is the George Thabe Stadium in Sharpeville, the only township football stadium we are left with in this region. The venue was part of the 2010 World Cup legacy programme, but it looks like a dusty soccer ground today. This same venue hosted the Ivory Coast national team as their training ground during the 2010 World Cup but look at it now.

We are left with nothing in this region apart from small sporting facilities that host small sporting activities. VUT FC had to play their Nedbank Cup far away from home because of the lack of facilities in this region. Even George Thabe Stadium was not up to standard to host the game of such magnitude.

To make it worse, this region also failed to host even the MDC games because the PSL claimed it didn’t meet FIFA standards to host the game of such magnitude. TOUCHLINE is not sure how true is this – but for the past years this region has never hosted a high-profile sporting event apart from political rallies, for obvious reasons.

This region used to host Four Nation Tournaments including the women international tournaments, but not anymore. For those with short, memories, this is because our sporting facilities are no longer maintained and people missuses them. The problem in this region is entitlement mentality with people saying, “they are community property.”

Look now at what the so called “our community” facilities have turned to be!

There is no more high-profile sporting facilities even if we can have a GladAfrica Championship team our facilities are not up to standard unless using one of the two institutions facilities.

TOUCHLINE challenges all the sports federations and administrators in Sedibeng to investigate this sporting facilities matter or maybe it should be part of toping agenda when this region held Soccer Indaba. This is our biggest challenge lately and we must have a deep conversation about this!