Youths in Waterval and nearby villages have been forced to hone their soccer skills on dusty fields because of the still-unfinished multi-million-rand Waterval Stadium. This project to turn the local sports grounds into a community stadium began five years ago but is still not complete.
Football teams such as Mpheni Home Defenders, who compete in the ABC Motsepe League, have been forced to travel long distances as well as pay exorbitant fees to practise and play games at other venues.
Mr Ntsakisi Mhlauri, the chairman of the local Elim 7 Stars football team, said: "We are pleading with those in charge of this project to complete the stadium, because our local teams find it hard to adapt when they go to trials," he said.
Phase 3 of the project entails the construction of a 2 000-seat precast pavilion, gabions and buttresses, an ablution block with changing rooms, and the construction of a guardhouse. This also includes the installation of electricity and water reticulation around the stadium, the installation of floodlights and paving of the entire area.
According to the Makhado Municipality's 2021/22 integrated development plan (IDP), the tender value for construction of phase 3 of the Waterval Stadium amounted to R28.4 million. In the municipality's budget that was tabled on 4 May last year, the expenditure is given as R17.3 million, with construction at 51% complete. The new completion date was set for May 31, 2021.
The contractor, Valcross Trading Enterprise, is working on phase 3 of the stadium, which not only includes a football field, but also tennis, basketball, volleyball and netball courts. In an earlier interview with the owner of Valcross, Dr Crosby Mulungwa, he said that the stadium would be completed by December 2021. But this was not the case.
The municipality's spokesperson, Louis Bobodi, explained that the smooth flow of the construction was hampered and delayed by, among others, the installation of a power transformer. "We are currently on course towards the realisation of the project as we are about to finalise securing quotations to complete the surfacing of running tracks and grassing," said Bobodi.
About a month ago, this newspaper spoke to Mulungwa again and enquired about the progress on the project. Mulungwa said that the project was complete and that he was about to hand it over to the municipality. However, when the reporter visited the site on Tuesday morning (22 November), no sign of progress was to be seen. No construction had clearly been done for some time as the untended soccer field was overgrown with long grass. Two security guards were on duty who refused to allow the reporter to photograph the stadium. The reporter tried to call Mulungwa as he has been doing for the past few weeks, but Mulungwa's phone appears to be switched off permanently.