A child in sport is a child out of court said the Ward 38 councillor Suzanne Zumana citing that she believes some children are committing crime because they have nothing to do.
Zumana is currently installing outside gym equipment and renovating a netball playing ground at KTC Hall. She said construction of both playing facilities is underway and are expected to be completed early next month.
She said there are limited playing grounds for children in her ward which compelled some of them to go to play in the neighbouring areas.
“We have a challenge with the lack of playing facilities in my ward. So, we decided to build these facilities for our children. We have the netball pitch which will also cater for basketball, but we will put a rubber mat to protect the players,” she said.
She said there is a netball facility at J Nontulo Sports Ground in New Crossroads, but it is damaged, and it needs to be renovated.
Zumana stated that both facilities are built from the ward allocation budget. “We are grooming the future stars here. Most of the children have to go to the neighbouring areas like Zolani Centre in Ward 37 and Gugulethu Sports Centre in Ward 39 if they want to exercise. We want them to play here,” she said, KTC Sanco committee member Lumkile Msila said these outside training facilities in the area are long overdue.
“As community leaders, we are promoting healthy living. We are encouraging the people to protect the facilities and use them wisely,” said Msila.