Rural settlements often lack adequate sports facilities, which can add considerable value to recreation, health and wellbeing. In some instances, rural sports fields have become mired in forms of corruptions involving tenders, and even mythical payments. In other cases there are major issues around the use of scarce resources. In this article, Destine Nde gives us an insight into the rising tensions surrounding use of a municipal sports ground in Willowmore.
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BY DESTINE NDE
Willowmore has only one decent sports ground. It has two large, green, and perfectly level pitches for rugby, soccer and cricket, flanked by two medium-sized grandstands. It also has a netball court and a big, well-maintained hall with a kitchen and good ablution facilities. It is located at Oosstraat in Hillview township, and is known as Waza Park — ‘The House of Pain’.
Waza Park belongs to the community of Willowmore as a whole, which is well-known to all its otherwise peaceable inhabitants.
In the past, it was mostly used for rugby, particularly by Willowmore United, which used to be the only rugby team in town, and is now recognised as Willowmore’s official team. Because of its age (it was founded in 1992), and its improving performances, Willowmore United is enjoying the attention and rapturous support of almost all the inhabitants of the town. Indeed, one could almost say the team is famous, and its players, coaches and benefactors are local superstars.
Hundreds of spectators turn up for their games, and sometimes even watch their training sessions. Last year, Willowmore United competed in the Western Cape Rugby League, and exceeded all expectations.
Ubuntu United is also a new force to be reckoned with. Unlike the others, it is more inclined to foster social cohesion and improve the general health and fitness of their members than to pursue competitive soccer. However, it still encourages young members to dedicate themselves to soccer and pursue professional careers.
The core of the team consists of older or working-class men, soccer lovers who are either too old or too preoccupied with work to pursue a full-time career in soccer, irrespective of whether they still have the talent and skills.
On the rugby side, there is also the Young Giants, made up of young and old players who either cannot secure a spot in Willowmore United, or think that Willowmore should have more than one team representing it in the league.
Besides these four clubs, which have raised their heads above the darkness of obscurity, are taking bold and confident steps in the light of recognition, and have a clear vision of where they are headed, there are many in the shadows, and many more still groping in the dark. These, too, will eventually make an appearance; it’s only a matter of time. Added to this, there have been persistent rumours that local women are also interested in forming soccer clubs.
Until now, Willowmore United has been the main user of Waza Park, followed by the Willowmore Primary and Secondary Schools, the Cricket Club, the Rastas, the Young Lions, and – in the past three months — by Ubuntu FC. As the most popular and perhaps the oldest club in town, this has been understandable, and widely accepted by residents. However, given the emergence of new clubs, complaints about this have begun to mount, and are starting to approach the realm of violence.
The Rastas and Young Lions play matches and tournaments quite often. They are used to practising during the week and playing matches during the weekends. They also play against teams from other towns, like Rietbron, Steytleville, Harlem, and Aberdeen. Sometimes they play against those teams in their own home towns. However, the level of activity in Waza Park has increased drastically, exacerbated by the sudden rise and powerful presence of Ubuntu FC, not to mention the Young Giants.
If all four these teams practice during the week and play matches or tournaments at the weekends, Waza Park would become a very busy place, still more so when the rugby season begins and Willowmore United is added to the traffic. Not to mention those clubs that are bound to be born soon and also demand to use the venue. For these reasons, the municipality – which owns and manages the facility — has stepped in and imposed some restrictions on its use.
It argues that the pitch has been overused, and needs some time to recover. This sounds reasonable, and indeed responsible. But the four teams mentioned earlier don’t agree — rather alarmingly, they believe the municipality is biased against them in favour of Willowmore United. In support of this argument, they point out that during the rugby season the municipality never said anything about the pitch being overused; rather, it allowed Willowmore United to practice and play matches at its convenience without being disturbed. According to the protesting clubs, the municipality is only making excuses so that it can have the time and space to revive the field before the start of the next rugby reason.
Sports club representatives inside the municipal buildings.
On Monday 30 September 2024, Mr Witbooi Ronaldo, representing Waza Lions (the Rastas) and the Young Lions, and Mr Menza Zola, representing the Young Giants, went to the municipal offices to confront municipal officials. They were evidently enraged, not so much because of the conflict over the field as what they perceived to be disrespect.
I asked them why they were so angry. In response, Mr Witbooi revealed that they had been ‘kicked out’ of the sports ground the previous day. They had been given only three hours to play a whole tournament. When those three hours were up, the municipal foreman interrupted the final – the most decisive match – and curtly asked them to leave, despite their protestations that the other team was visiting from Rietbron.
Menza Zola, who represented Young Giants, outside the municipal offices.
Speaking at greater length, Mr Zola explained that he was helping to build the community by means of sport, specifically by taking young people off the streets. There is only one sports ground in our community, namely Waza Park, but the municipal management are refusing to let people play on that ground.
‘Yesterday there was a soccer tournament for three or four different towns, but they decided that we could play for three hours only. How can you play a tournament in three hours?
‘So we have come here today to ask the municipality to release the sports field to the community. We are waiting for the area manager. She passed by a few minutes ago, and said we must wait.
“We are calling out to those who can hear about this to please assist us with the sports ground, and maybe with sponsorship. We would really appreciate it.
“Willowmore United has full access to the sports ground. We have no problem with this, because they are also trying to build the community. So why they don’t they give us the same access to the sports ground? We also live in Willowmore – it’s the same community. What we are asking for is to be allowed to practise and play our games there.’
But all of this may change. Several new and promising teams are being formed, soccer as well as rugby. The most serious and rapidly growing ones are Waza Lions, a big soccer club popularly known as the Rastas, and the Young Lions, a soccer club mostly for young boys. In fact, these two clubs can field up to three teams each.
Ronaldo Witbooi, who represented Waza Lions.
I then accompanied the protestors to the area manager’s office. After I had introduced myself to her, and explained why the club representatives had come to see her, she said she had nothing to say to them about this matter, and if they had anything to complain about, they should write to Dr E.M. Rangkwana of the Willowmore Office. On that note, we left.
When we got outside, the representatives started to make their points to passers-by. After listening to them for the second time, and the remarks of two passers-by who spoke in their favour, I decided to go back into the office and speak with the area manager again. My purpose was to at least get her to acknowledge that the club representatives had nothing but good intentions, which if neglected or scorned might quite easily become ugly.
Though I spent a relatively short time in the office, I left with a fairly clear understanding of the municipality’s own position and difficulties. At this stage, both the area manager and the foreman were present. She said it was unnecessary for her to speak to the representatives because they had already spoken to the mayor, the foreman, and the caretaker of the sports ground — and that even if she did, the outcome would be the same.
She then explained that the pitch was about 70 per cent damaged, and needed time to be revived. Given that the facility was meant to be used by everyone, I began to understand that if there was no system in place for managing it, the pitch could only go from bad to worse. Moreover, if clubs were not given specific times for using the various facilities, arguments and fights were likely to break out. On the whole, without the municipality’s efforts to impose order and manage the facility, the situation could only descend into chaos and disorder.
Having learnt more about the municipality’s perspective, and sympathised with it in some ways, I went back outside and tried to reason with the club representatives. However, they refused to consider my suggestions, and marched to the police station, threatening to take the law into their own hands and use the sports ground whenever they wanted to.
There are two sides to the story, and both make some sense. But the situation is quite dangerous in that these seemingly simple and well-intentioned arguments have volatile and explosive undertones of prejudice and injustice. Nothing worth reporting happened at the police station, but I am keeping a close eye on the matter.
FEATURED IMAGE: Sports club representatives outside the municipal offices. All images: Destine Nde.