South Africa : Rural communities in KZN to benefit from sports ground

By Siboniso Ntuli

KwaZulu-Natal - The communities living in the Meshweshwe area in KwaZulu-Natal will soon have access to sport and recreation facilities through the building of a R1.1million sports ground.

Provincial MEC for the Department of Sport and Recreation Amichand Rajbansi officiated the sod turning of the sports ground on Friday.

The Mshweshwe sports ground, which is expected to be completed end of December, will have ablution facilities, change rooms, fencing, palisade, grassed pitch-football, concrete grandstands and combo courts.

Mr Rajbansi said one of the objectives of the department was to facilitate and co-ordinate the provision of sport and recreation facilities in the province.

"The department has a responsibility of ensuring that this objective and its related functions are implemented and achieved," said Mr Rajbansi.

According to the department they have been engaging local government structures in the implementation of projects associated with the responsibility of providing sporting facilities.

The focus has always been providing basic sports facilities and mainly football fields and combo courts for netball and volleyball in rural areas and small towns, the MEC said.

MEC Rajbansi said the department has completed 42 sport facilities around the province.

"This is part of our contribution and intervention towards addressing backlogs in sport and recreation infrastructure in this province in especially the previously disadvantaged communities.

"It is also a means towards the provincial strategy of investing in community infrastructure while fighting poverty, creating job opportunities and providing enabling skills."

Since its inception this programme has created more than 1000 job opportunities including those for project managers, SMMEs, and skilled and unskilled labour from local communities.

The department said this year alone, they have been able to create more than 400 job opportunities through which training ranging from sports field grass planting, drainage and irrigation erection, fencing to bricklaying has been provided.

The department also plans to deliver 20 basic sports complexes fenced and grassed with ablution facilities, change rooms and cricket pitches as well as 30 combo courts for practicing netball, volleyball, basketball and tennis throughout the province.

Some of the areas include Ixopo, Ingwavuma, Nquthu, Umkhambathini, Umvoti, Mbonambi, KwaDukuza, Ndwedwe, Dumbe, Nkandla, Hlabisa, UMuziwabantu, Umdoni/Umzinto, Umzumbe/Qwabe and Ezinqoleni.

It also includes the completion of the Mandeni/Uthukela mouth beach recreational facilities, Umsunduzi/ Alexandra Athletics track and basic sports facilities. - BuaNews