23 June 2008

AS part of their 2010 Legacy Projects, the Ekurhuleni Municipality will spend about R64 million by 2010 on upgrading informal sports fields located within the municipality's informal settlements.

"To contribute to the development of football within our communities we have embarked on the upgrading of six informal sports fields [at a cost of R1 million each] for this [the 2008/09 financial year] and this involves the planting of grass, the installation of irrigation and the construction of palisade fencing around the fields.

"This will contribute significantly to the greening of the landscape within the townships, but we will also be looking to go beyond the boundaries of the sports fields for the greening of the communities," said Ekurhuleni Municipality 2010 General Manager Maropeng Raphela.

The municipality has 64 wards within its informal settlements, and an amount of R64 million has therefore been budgeted for the revamp of 64 informal sports fields by 2010, said Raphela.

Mentor and Project Manager responsible for the upgrades of the fields, Austin Oluwamakinde said: "The project is taking place within the Expanded Public Works Programme [EPWP], and as such, we decided to use a very labour intensive process of construction which not only provides employment to the local community, but also exposes them to skills training.

"The labour intensive process of construction not only contributes to creating jobs for people in the communities, but also helps to spread wealth and encourages skills development as people are exposed to formal training."

While Ekurhuleni is not one of the nine host cities for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it will be the single biggest entry point for air traffic into South Africa for the tournament as it houses OR Tambo International Airport, and therefore has the potential to unlock various tourism, economic, and legacy opportunities.

According to the municipality's 2010 Business Plan, four stadiums are currently undergoing significant upgrades as Makhulong, Vosloorus, Katlehong and Sinaba stadiums will be available as training venues to international teams who choose the municipality as its host.

"We would like international teams traveling here for the world cup to use us as a base camp, and we currently have people at the EUFA Euro 2008 tournament marketing us to some of the participating countries [in Switzerland at the moment]," said Raphela.

In terms of tourism opportunities for the municipality, Sizwe Mthembu from Ekurhuleni Tourism told reporters the opportunities for increased tourism activity in Ekurhuleni is vast.

"We have conducted extensive research into the story behind the township of Tembisa in order to get to know exactly what was there before Tembisa ... and apparently we were told it was just a huge empty space.

"However, there are hundreds of mass unmarked graves scattered throughout the township.

"There is only one marked grave belonging to a German man who allegedly died in 1856.

"What is interesting is that there are records that this very same German man fought in the Anglo-Boer War in a battle in 1902, so it appears there is some mystery around this man and his family.

"Tourism is about developing interest in a product that people didn't even know existed," said Mthembu.

The municipality in its Business Plan highlights that their objectives with regard to the world cup include developing a sporting culture in general and football development; world class sporting facilities, expanding tourism capacity, and improving public transport and transportation.

Also, they hope to create a world class Information Communication Technology infrastructure; improve the economy with higher labour absorption, create more opportunities for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, and improve its hosting capability for major events.

Source: BuaNews