Question NW2680 to the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture
10 November 2023 - NW2680
Cuthbert, Mr MJ to ask the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture
(1). what is the total number of public recreational and/or sports swimming pools i(a) the republic and (b) each (i) province, (ii) town and (iii) suburb. (2). what number of the specified pools are (a) operational and (b) not operational in each specified(i)province,(ii)town and(iii)suburb?
Reply:
(1). A reliable response regarding this question is dependent on the availability of the existence of a national sport facilities database that can filter data as per the required variables such as province, towns, and suburbs, schools, and coordinates of the exact site where the facility is located.
As a department, we have previously made efforts to ensure establishment of such database by trying to mobilise resources required to conduct a facility audit that will, among others, identify locations of all sport facilities in the country, including in terms of province, towns, suburbs, and schools.
These efforts included engagements with provinces to allocate resources from their budgets for this purpose, but budget availability was also a constraint for them. Another effort included submission of a request for R20 million under the second wave of Presidential Economic Stimulus Programme (PESP) to conduct this audit and use
it to drive employment creation among young people, but unfortunately that application was not successful.
As a result, national department has not yet conducted this audit and does not have the information as requested. However, it has engaged with Swimming South Africa (SSA) to establish a possibility of availability of this information.
Fortunately, the Federation provided a report for an audit of swimming pool facilities in Mpumalanga province conducted in 2015 which, at the least, give an idea of the minimum number of facilities that exist in the province. While the other limitation of the report is that it does not provide information to a level of town and suburb, but it gives
the total number of swimming pools in the province, as well as the district and local municipalities where they are located.
In summary, by 2015 Mpumalanga had 61 swimming pools that are accessible to the public. For a provincial distribution of these facilities kindly refer to the attached Swimming Facility Audit Report of Mpumalanga. Department is still awaiting reports covering other provinces from the Federation and they will also be shared as soon as they become available.
(2). As indicated in the response above that due to lack of facility audit conducted by the department, reliance was placed on audit conducted by Swimming South Africa, and they have so far provided a covering Mpumalanga province only. However, report reveals that of the total sixty-one swimming pools in the province, only fourteen are in good conditions and fifteen are not usable. The remaining twenty-six was in average conditions and six in poor conditions, respectively.