Cape Town Backtracks on Closing Pools During Week

The Trafalgar Park municipal pool in Woodstock is a popular recreational facility for residents during the summer months.

• Operating hours at public pools across Cape Town have been extended and will now be open from Wednesdays to Sundays until April.
• This followed an announcement by the City earlier this month that most of its pools would only be open on weekends due to budget constraints.
• But public pressure, including a petition and a letter from residents still call for the pools to operate seven days a week during the summer months.
• Residents say the pools are an “affordable and safe” way to keep children off the streets, and they are used by senior clubs.

The City of Cape Town has backtracked on a decision to close most of its public swimming pools during the week. This followed an outcry by communities through letters, petitions and a threat to protest.

Earlier this month, the City announced that 31 outdoor community swimming pools would revert to weekend operations from 19 January “due to the drop in demand once schools reopen, and to ensure the effective management of operational costs”.

Mayco member for community services and health, Francine Higham, said the pools would only be open on weekends.

A petition, started by the Woodstock Residents’ Association and signed by more than 600 people, called on the City to reverse its decision to close pools during the week. “The pools, which charge just R3 for children and R9 for adults, are affordable and safe, and keep the children off the street in summer. Children do have time to go to the pool after school in February and March, not just on the weekends, because they don’t have exam pressure yet. Adults in the communities also use the pools to exercise, including senior citizens.”

“Unlike in the green, leafy suburbs, these communities do not have access to private swimming pools. Closing the community pools and only providing budgets for regional pools like Sea Point is, therefore, a blatantly anti-poor way to spend Cape Town’s budget,” the petition read.

A few days later, seemingly in response to public pressure, the City announced that community pools will now be open Wednesdays to Sundays from Wednesday, 28 January. “This will be piloted at all swimming pools for the rest of the season, ending 6 April, to assess demand and viability,” the City said in a statement.

On Friday there was a queue of children waiting with their towels and bathers for the pool to open at 2pm in Bonteheuwel. Inside, the grounds and pool were pristine. According to residents, on a busy day, hundreds of people come to the pool.

Henriette Abrahams, chairperson of the Bonteheuwel Development Forum, explained that “swimming is not just recreation; it is a sport, a fitness tool, and a life-saving skill”.

The forum runs community initiatives, including the Community Sports Against Violence Tournament and Building Safe Spaces programmes for the youth. Access to swimming facilities is essential for these programmes, she said.

“We, as community activists, are trying to devise programmes to disrupt gang recruitment, to disrupt substance abuse, to forge other paths for our children to choose and to keep them safe,” she told GroundUp.

In a statement after the City’s reversed decision, the Bonteheuwel forum wrote, “Opening pools only from Wednesday to Sunday still leaves communities without access during peak summer. This is not full weekday access and does not meet the needs of working-class communities facing extreme heat, overcrowding, and limited recreational options.”

At the Trafalgar Park Swimming Pool in Woodstock, a sign at the entrance advertised water aerobics for people over 50 and another one warned that learners weren’t allowed at the pool during school hours.

Yusuf Gamiet, a coach at the Trafalgar Aquatics Club, told GroundUp the pools should be open for at least nine months of the year to maintain proper training. He added that “water safety” was a vital life skill.

Chloé van Biljon of the Woodstock Residents’ Association said the City owed the public a proper explanation for its decision.

Over the past three financial years, the City invested approximately R113.5-million in swimming pool upgrades and maintenance, according to Higham. This has led to 36 of the City’s 37 pools being open this summer – compared to only 26 in the 2022/23 season.

From early February, the pools in Manenberg, Langa, Lentegeur, Goodwood, Bellville South and Delft will be closed for major repairs.

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