With just two days to go before the World Transplant Games start, the stadium's track is still in a state of "disrepair".
|||Durban - With just two days to go before the World Transplant Games start in Durban, the King’s Park Athletic Stadium’s track was still in a state of “disrepair”.
The city was announced as the first African host of the games on June 16, 2010. Athletics will be one of the main sporting codes at the event.
On Thursday, the president of KwaZulu-Natal Athletics, Sello Mokoena, said it was embarrassing for Durban as the host city.
He said in spite of the many meetings with city officials regarding the upgrades, nothing had happened.
The eThekwini Municipality had apparently budgeted R5.5 million for renovations and upgrades at the stadium, which were supposed to have started in April.
“With the condition of our track at the moment, we can’t even host a national event and we are now unfortunately in a situation where we have to host international athletes on it. It is very sad,” Mokoena said. He said the track was “really in a state of disrepair”.
Mokoena said they had not expected to make athletes from around the world run on a track in such a state.
“Nothing can be done about it now. My hopes are that the track will, in future, be upgraded because we can’t be expected to train our own athletes properly on this track as it is,” he said.
However, Musa Gumede, deputy city manager of community and emergency services, said there had been insufficient time to replace the track and that the multimillion-rand contract had not gone out to tender.
It was only at a meeting in April or May this year, Gumede said, that the local organising committee had alerted them that an upgrade was needed at the stadium.
He said the tender processes would have taken more than six weeks to finalise.
Quotes had been obtained from companies to replace the track surface which was where the R5.5m figure came from, he said.
“Although this is the World Transplant Games it’s not the same as the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) standards, so it was agreed the track could be used.”
He said the stadium was leased to the Athletics Federation and it should be taking care of it. The events taking place to date were part of the athletics programme.
“The plan to replace the track will continue after the games,” he said.
Mokoena disputed some of the claims made by the city.
KZN Athletics had held a meeting with the city in December last year and had handed over a written submission for a stadium and track upgrade, he said.
He thought it was likely that the previous president of KZN Athletics would have also submitted a request for upgrades before that, but he could not confirm that this morning.
He said when they met again in April this year, the city said it did not have the document, so the same document was resubmitted.
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We were told there would be construction beginning in May so KZN Athletics couldn’t use the track from then.”
However, he said events, booked through the city and not KZN athletics, continued during this time.
During the 2010 soccer world cup, the city had pledged to create a “world class” sporting precinct around Moses Mabhida.
Despite the setback, Mokoena said KZN’s star athletes were ready to make the country proud.
On Thursday, contractors were in a last-minute dash to get the stadium in shape for the arrival of the 2 500 international athletes and supporters for the games, which begin on Sunday.
Athletes from 50 countries participate in 13 sport codes. Team South Africa has 100 athletes - 15 from KwaZulu-Natal.
One of the contractors on Thursday denied liability, saying he had been waiting for weeks to get the go-ahead from the city to begin the work. But now it was too late as the imported material had been used elsewhere.
Phillip van Tonder, owner of CK Industries, a company that specialises in synthetic sports surfaces, confirmed that his company had submitted a quote to the city for the running surface upgrade.
Van Tonder said that he had waited for the city to appoint him to start the work.
“Running out of time, I had ordered the needed materials from Europe, being a calculated risk that if the city’s appointment did not materialise, the imported material would be allocated to another two current projects,” he said.
Van Tonder said the material, worth about R2 million, had arrived in the country about two weeks ago.
He said he had told the city that if he did not get a go-ahead, the materials would be delivered to the other sites.
“I have not heard anything from the city. If work on the track had to start now, then we are seven weeks behind as we have to order the material again and wait for it to arrive,” he said.
When the Daily News visited the stadium on Thursday, municipal workers were seen painting toilets.
One - for disabled males - was locked, and refurbishment appeared to be under way.
The paint on the concrete stands was peeling, and had still not yet been painted.
Municipal workers were still working on the water drainage along the track. There were pieces of plywood covering the inside of part of the track, where grating for drainage was missing. A broken lid for an electrical box was held in place with a concrete block.
Both VIP and the media sections had some broken seats, and some had bird droppings on them.
“Unfortunately the nest is above the VIP area, which has to be pressure-cleaned on a daily bases,” said Lunga Lamula, who is part of the local organising committee.
Lamula said that his team was working hard to clean the stadium. “We have requested an independent company to sanitise the change rooms and toilets. Plastic seating is only in the VIP area, the rest of the seating area is concrete, which has already been pressure-cleaned,” he said.
“Everything is in place. To me there is nothing to say apart from that there is someone who is just spreading rumours.
“We are conscious that these people (athletes) have undergone major surgeries. We are not going to compromise their health.
“We have sanitised areas that we know might expose people to infections.”
Lamula conceded that the track needed to be resurfaced, saying work would continue after the games.
“KZN Athletics objected (to) the cheap type of surface, with a guarantee of 10 years. They wanted the one that cost more than R500 000 which would last for only five years,” said Lamula. He said they were still in discussions to resurface the tracks.
MF councillor Patrick Pillay, a city executive committee member, said it was embarrassing that the work was not done because money had been set aside for the upgrade.
“Someone has to explain. This is a big problem,” he said. “We have to give these games the same priority that we give other international events that take place in this city.”
Kim Renyard, general manager for the World Transplant Games, said an inspection of the athletics track was done yesterday.
“Repairs have been done over the last few weeks which were being finalised today.”
She said the ablution facilities at all the venues had been inspected and they were fine.
‘Everything is in place’ for games
* The two main sporting codes will be athletics at King’s Park Athletic Stadium next Friday and Saturday and swimming at King’s Park Pool on Thursday. Roads in Durban will be closed for the 5km road race, cycling time trial and 20km cycling road race on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All start at King’s Park Pool.
Petanque (a form of European bowls) will be at Moses Mabhida People’s Park on Tuesday with volleyball and table tennis played at UKZN Westville campus on Monday and Friday respectively.
Tennis will be played at Westridge Stadium, singles on Thursday and doubles on Friday, with squash and lawn bowls competed at Westville Country Club on Tuesday and Thursday.
Badminton is at Maris Stella school - singles on Wednesday and doubles on Thursday.
For golf enthusiasts, competitors will be on the greens at Mt Edgecombe Country Club on Tuesday.
Daily News