DURBAN parents and children who visited the once-popular People’s Park playground have been shocked in recent weeks to find the once state-of-the-art play area has deteriorated into what can be compared to an abandoned wreck.
However, according to the City, the area is going to be revamped.
Westville father Clive Read said he had taken his daughter to the play area at the popular park and thought there was something grossly amiss.
A second trip recently yielded the same disappointing results.
“About half the swings and gear has rot or parts missing. Entire slide set-ups are fenced off because they look like they’re about to collapse,” he said.
Read said while the grounds were maintained, the children’s play area and equipment was completely run down and rusted.
He said there was no signage to warn visitors, but security did tell young children that they were too old for the remaining apparatus.
Another local parent told the Daily News he was not surprised when he found swings and equipment missing, because he had noticed that one section of the playground was cordoned off for almost a year.
Shelton Masike, who was at the park recently with his son Shalom, 7, and daughter Shanice, 3, said: “We come here every weekend. My kids love to play here, this is their favourite playground.
“It used to be busy, but now everything has changed and seems to be worse. I’ve noticed people come, but when they see the place they leave with their kids,” he said.
Masike said he now had to physically check every bit of equipment before he let his children use it because of the rust, while in the past he could relax on a deck chair and watch them play from a distance.
Young Shalom said: “ I was very sad when they closed the big slide area because that and the spinning wheel were my favourite part of the playground.”
Councillor Mmabatho Tembe, DA, eThekwini Community Services Committee whip, said: “The councillors on the committee are committed to doing an oversight visit of the facility play area as the deterioration has only now been brought to their attention.”
Tembe said findings from the oversight visit would be addressed with the Moses Mabhida Stadium Unit.
The eThekwini municipality spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, told the Daily News: “Some equipment in the People’s Park play area was fenced off after it was established that those play items were no longer safe to be used by members of the public, due to corrosion.
“There are sections of equipment that are safe to use, and kids are using them. We have security that is stationed in that vicinity monitoring the usage of the kids’ play area. Generally, the park is well kept, but due to it being on the coast, some items have given up due to corrosion,” he said.
On a positive note, Mayisela said that families could look forward to the whole play area getting revamped in the 2021/22 financial year.
Daily News
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