Pretoria - Bring back HM Pitje Stadium, and if you cannot, please step aside and let us do it ourselves.
That was the call by Mamelodi residents yesterday, when they took to the streets reiterating their call for action on the stadium that has now become a white elephant.
Speaking outside the stadium, United Mamelodi leader Tsaka Tsepedi said they were now at a point where they have had enough of excuses and would even go to the extent of shutting down Mamelodi.
The movement was formed in January. Tsepedi said they were giving up on the councillors as they have failed to do anything regarding the stadium.
As a way forward, he said, they would move to shut down Mamelodi. "We will engage the community so we are all on board and those who need to take leave must do so.
"All the strategies used to silence us since 2015 won't work, even now. I am getting death threats but we won't stop. Atteridgeville, Soshanguve, Mabopane and Hammanskraal want to join and shut down Tshwane.
"Phelindaba was burnt and we’re saying don't burn down our facilities."
Resident Abda Khumalo said the facility was a mess and dirty. "If a person dies or someone gets raped here then maybe there will be action.
"We are being failed and it's concerning how our township has been left to rot. No one wants to take action on this matter.
"We have to fight to get service. Look what happened at Wits. People must die before there is action. We are going to local government elections so who are we going to vote for?"
Abi Motsientse said there was a lack of maintenance on facilities in general. This was having a bad effect on teenagers and now they are stuck with a white elephant that thousands were spent on.
"This was supposed to be a World Cup training facility. Now look at this mess and what it has become. Small businesses could benefit massively from this and we could alleviate poverty, hawkers would be able to make money, imagine if PSL games could be played here."
He said it's not just about Mamelodi ... “our facilities have been neglected”.
Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe previously offered to assist with the refurbishing of the abandoned stadium. Once the pride of Mamelodi, the ancestral home of Sundowns continues to be stripped to the ground.
MMC for Community and Social Development Thabisile Vilakazi said plans to demolish the stadium were approved by the City in July 2019.
“Provincial funding for this purpose is pending approval. Engagement with the province is also under way, and future internal funding and other options are explored,” she said.
Vilakazi previously confirmed to the Pretoria News that there were previous engagements with Mamelodi Sundowns delegates on the possible funding of the stadium, without any success. She said they were undertaking to re-establish discussions with the Motsepe Foundation in this regard.
However, Sundown’s legal and communications manager Yogesh Singh said the offer by Motsepe was nothing new. He said they spent over a decade trying to rebuild the stadium from their own pockets.
“We’ve made too many offers; I've lost count. We offered to rebuild the stadium, but were denied by some red tape. We even asked to be on a 100-year lease after fixing the stadium, but were denied that too,” he told the Pretoria News.
Pretoria News