Durban - The Democratic Alliance in eThekwini has slammed the city for the slow progress being made to safely open libraries and pools.
The DA's Mmabatho Tembe said they have been monitoring progress and following up with officials since June 25.
She said despite the city having months to prepare for the re-opening of libraries and pools, they have failed to deliver.
"Libraries have remained closed since the beginning of lockdown and were set to reopen on level 2 of the lockdown. When level 2 regulations were published, the DA requested information on when libraries were set to open as they were still closed two weeks into level 2 lockdown," she said.
Tembe said they were told that the department was waiting for regulations guidelines from both national and provincial departments.
"The municipality failed to properly plan for the immediate opening of libraries under level 2 as regulations do have provision for libraries to be open. Majority of the libraries are only set to open in October 2020. Pools still remain in a shocking state as still no contract for chlorine has been in place and some pools have now been drained. The state of readiness of the pools from contracts to repairs have been left to the last minute," Tembe said.
She said the issue was brought up months ago.
"The DA Community Services committee has requested and awaits reports in the next committee on the state of pools and libraries in the city," Tembe said.
The Mercury