It is with great excitement that we as an Eden Park community welcome the swimming pool project. As all of you know, the swimming pool in Eden Park is the first add-on to the existing community facilities in more than 25 years. After numerous meetings in the last five months with the Project Steering Committee (PSC), the site at the swimming pool was shut down on Friday, 19 February. Work at the swimming pool is suspended until the main contractor commits to meet the contractual obligations of including the local community and local business (SMMEs). This arrangement is a norm within every community where projects of this nature are launched. The local community and local business forum’s gripe is the main contractor’s reluctance to include the local SMMEs in the economic programme, which is worth about R10 million for SMMEs. Subcontractors that are not in the immediate vicinity of the project are benefiting, while the actual project beneficiaries are kept busy with fruitless meetings. On 23 February another meeting was held with stakeholders to try and resolve burning issues, but to no avail. The matter has now been escalated to the funders (as explained) of the swimming pool project, Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA). The site will remain closed until all unaddressed issues are ironed out.
Pastor Dentrick Sweni
