GEORGE NEWS - A dirty, damp and stockpiled hall full of metal scaffolding poles and bagged clothing greeted children from Thembalethu who gathered eagerly on Monday 8 January to take part in a weeklong holiday programme at the All Bricks Hall in Zone 8.
"We are supposed to do fun stuff, teach them art skills such as drama and dance, and do creative activities like making masks and finger painting," said Heather Stead, coordinator of the holiday programme, which is funded by the Western Cape Department of Arts and Culture.
No man's land
Feedback from both George Municipality and the ward councillor, who became involved as a favour to the community, indicates that the hall is neither the property of the municipality, or any specific organisation.
"It is for the use of the community," said Ward Councillor Butwam Thabisile Mdaka.
As a temporary measure, the ward committee keeps control. "When someone wants to use the hall, it gets communicated through the block committee to the ward committees, where one member of the ward committee keeps the keys. At least there is control as to who uses the hall, so that if something goes wrong, we will know who was there."
He said the idea is to try and establish a board that will take responsibility of the hall.
Storage facility
Krishenthrie Moodley, Director of Corporate Services, confirmed that the All-Bricks hall is not one of the community halls under the control of the George Municipality.
Scaffolding material, boxes and other loose bits were moved to one end of the hall before the start of the day's activities.
"It was erected as a storage facility by the former contractor that developed the area in question, and it is used by the local community outside of the span of control of the municipality," said senior communications officer Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe.
"The municipality does not play any role in its booking, maintenance, cleaning or management."
Terrible disrepair
Meanwhile, organisers of the holiday programme had to make do with what they have, which seems to be very little. "Last year we ran a similar workshop in the same community. This year, however, we were greeted on Monday morning by a hall that was in terrible disrepair," said Stead.
"Lots of metal scaffolding poles and black bags were stored all over and filling the whole kitchen.
"These black bags are all donations of clothes to victims of houses that burnt down. Disturbingly they are still in that hall which is damp and dirty."
Mdaka confirmed that the donated clothing is available to anyone from the community who suffered loss during a house fire and are in dire need of clothing.
According to Stead they have to operate without a kitchen and running water. "How can we run a holiday programme for 100 children for this very needy community when the hall is not kept in a usable condition?
Organisers of a holiday programme for children had no kitchen to work from, and no water.
"We have managed to clean half the hall and so we can only accommodate 50 children for the drama and dance holiday programme with sandwiches and cooldrinks and snacks, instead of 100," said Stead.
"It is a huge pity that we are not able to work properly with these young kids due to neglect of the only facility in that area."
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