Johannesburg - The African National Congress (ANC) Caucus in the City of Johannesburg on Friday evening said it was disappointed that the lack of chemicals has led to the closure of public swimming pools in Florida Lake‚ Sydenham‚ Eastbank in Alexandra‚ Roodepoort and Davidsonville.
"The Democratic Alliance's (DA) failure to manage the procurement process in purchasing pool chemicals is a clear indication of how this administration is unable to run the City of Johannesburg effectively," said the ANC in a statement.
"An administration leading an Economic Hub such as the City of Johannesburg should, at all costs, avoid blundering on matters that lead to the people of Johannesburg being deprived of services due to them."
Earlier the council running the city of Johannesburg said it would have to close some of its swimming pools due to a shortage of chemicals used to keep the water hygienic.
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“Whilst this is regrettable as it deprives the residents of the affected areas access to the pools, I would like to assure the residents that this closure is done to ensure the health and safety of the bathers,” Member of the Mayoral Committee for Community Development, Nonhlanhla Sifumba said.
“The procurement process for the chemicals is almost complete and should be concluded by the end of this week. The delays in the procurement process were caused by among others the open tender process on which the department embarked on to buy the pool chemicals.”
However, the ANC said during the summer festive season, the use of swimming facilities was a priority to the people of Johannesburg and should be treated as such.
"Issues of procurement processes are issues that the DA-led administration should have under control at all times.The closure of the swimming facilities was a lack of foresight from the DA and is a gross disservice to affected residents," said the ANC.
"As the ANC caucus, we believe that this negligence by the DA is driven by the fact that the primary beneficiaries of community swimming facilities are children from disadvantaged communities, who don't have the luxury of private swimming pools at home and are of no consequence to the DA.
"The ANC Caucus in the City of Johannesburg wishes to extend its sincerest apologies to all affected residents by the incompetence of the Democratic Alliance and hope that this issue will be addressed with the haste it deserves."