Durban - “Forbid the hand, feet, wrist to fill in the crack, so as not to weigh the body wounded,” read bizarre instructions on an outdoor gym at the La Lucia Mall.
But the city’s head of parks and recreation, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, is not fazed by the faulty English, insisting that the instruction information is irrelevant.
The signage, which can be found at the popular outdoor gyms across the city, has been turning heads for the wrong reasons – it’s broken English. The “instruction” notice reads: “This one combined game products, there are three functions you can selected, building the arms and abdomen.” It continues: “Taking the equipment each time, the middle-aged and old people are 10-15 times, the teenagers are about 20-25 times.” Gym users are advised that “the speed should not be too fast, forbid doing dangerous sport”.
“The middle of equipment can not stand people have barriers,” it reads. “Child should have adult guard while using,” it concludes.
Ngcobo refused to be sidetracked by the flawed grammar. He said the aim of the project was to have an outdoor gym in every ward in the city. There were already gyms in KwaMashu, Newlands West, Mariannridge, Umbilo and Ntuzuma. Ten were to be launched during the 2015/16 financial year.
He said: “This is part of our mass participation programme. We have 3.5 million residents in the city and our aim is to support sport and recreation, not just for young people. We want at least 90% of these people to be involved in the activities, whether young or old or rich or poor.” When it was pointed out to him that some gym users might struggle to comprehend the instructions, he said: “I don’t think that is an issue.
“The issue is that the municipality and the provincial Sport and Recreation Department pay for the equipment. There will be private companies who will want to come on board.”
Ngcobo said he had not read the instructions on the signs. His unit was “not looking for the English, we were looking for the equipment”.
“We didn’t look at how broken the English is. I don’t think anyone is perfect in English. It’s a non-issue,” he said.
World Outdoor Fitness marketing director Sarit Qwabe sent The Mercury an instruction “notice”, which appears to have the grammar corrected, with the provincial Sport and Recreation Department’s logo.
“We made available a workout programme sign that assists users on various fitness levels to better use our equipment. We are happy for any input from yourself and/or users to improve our product. I hope you found the equipment itself very self-explanatory, easy and fun to use,” she said.
The department recently indicated that it would set up 11 outdoor gyms across the province’s 11 districts at a cost of R8.2 million in 2015/16.
The Mercury