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To: Zanele Katembo, HOD SRAC, City of Ekurhuleni Municipality.
Fix broken public parks in Vosloorus immediately!
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To the Head Of Department in charge of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture in the City of Ekurhuleni (COE) Municipality, Zanele Katembo, we the community of Vosloorus demand that you fix every dilapidated public park where our children are supposed to play and build more recreational infrastructure for social related purposes, effective immediately:
- Provide a safer space where they will be encouraged to play and stay active.
- Provide and maintain training equipment and walking pathways for community members in the same facilities in order to encourage an active lifestyle.
- Build braai and picnic areas, taps, bins and benches for recreational purposes.
- Employ security guards to ensure that public parks are an alcohol free zone.
- Maintain grass cutting and the pruning of trees in parks on a regular basis to attract public use of the infrastructure.
Why is this important?
The unavailability of proper and safe parks have led to children in the townships being locked inside their yards in order to safeguard them from external harm. This is a grave injustice as it not only leads to social isolation which negatively affects a child’s development, but it is a great contributor to health issues associated with lifestyle illnesses later in their lives. But this does not only speak to children as every member of our society gets affected by the lack of public playgrounds and training infrastructure.
It is a fact that all four public parks and recreational facilities in the community of Ward 47 in Vosloorus are dilapidated without a single swing, slide, mary-go-round and exercising equipment being in a conducive state for public use. A few weeks ago over the spring holidays, my nephew had his trousers torn as a result of sliding down a rusty slide which almost caused an injury to his buttocks. Why has the municipality let such important infrastructure go unmaintained? Where are our children supposed to learn physical and social skills outside of the school playgrounds? After all, Outdoor play helps kids to build flexibility and creativity. They also have to learn to interact with other children, for example, at the swings or the slide, where they can learn about the importance of sharing and turn-taking [1].
In South Africa, diabetes is the most common cause of death in adult females, followed by cardiovascular disease and hypertension [2]. It is because of this reason that we cannot afford to have our townships' public recreational infrastructure neglected when the government should be encouraging physical activity and the culture of exercising, especially since the highest prevalence of obesity among South African adults, stratified by sex and race, was found to be in African women. We need to have our training equipment maintained in the same parks where our children play so that we can safely watch over them as we all stay active and keep in shape for our health and social benefits.
Maintaining the equipment alone will not be enough if the environment itself is not physically inviting. This is why it is important to ensure that the grass stays cut and trees get pruned on a regular basis. People are social beings who need to participate in recreational activities in order to be stimulated. As a result, we need benches, picnic and braai areas, taps and garbage bins to be made available in our parks in as far as encouraging the culture of keeping our township litter free, especially in shared public spaces. There should also be employment of security guards to ensure that our parks stay secure and are alcohol free zones. This initiative will also create employment opportunities, thereby reducing the unemployment rate that is currently plaguing our country.
Let us remind our local government that they have a responsibility over the wellness of our communities by adding your name to this petition.
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