Dear Gayton

As a founder member of the South African Masters Swimming Association, who is looking forward to attending my 40th consecutive in Durban next year, I am extremely upset with the news that the local organizing committee has shocked us with about the fact that the Kings Park Pool being unavailablefor next year's Nationals
Many of my friends had already booked their flights and made arrangements for accommodation in Durban
I'm proud to say that we were a mtlti-racial organizations way back in 1984 when we started SAMS and I can't believe that a sports group is being treated in such an unacceptable manner.

Yours in swimming
Allen Morrison

* See messages below from
the organizing committee


Article from the Independent Newspaper*

R43m overhaul for Kings Park Pool

THE undercover pool at the Kings Park.

ETHEKWINI Municipality has approved a “re-prioritisation” of the 2024/2025 capital budget, allocating R42.995 million specifically for the rehabilitation of the Kings Park Pool “and other key facilities”.

The reallocation is for urgent infrastructure maintenance and upgrades which have not been done because of budget shortfalls.

The report listed more than 20 projects that would be deferred to pay for the pool upgrade. These included work to be done on town and community halls, depots and other public facilities.

These would stay on hold until the mid-term budget adjustment.

The Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) unit has long struggled with deteriorating infrastructure because of ageing facilities and financial constraints. Many of its assets have fallen into disrepair, exacerbated by insufficient maintenance funds.

This new allocation is expected to make substantial improvements to the Kings Park Pool and several other essential projects within the unit, but the City did not answer a request for details of what the work would entail.

“Inclement weather changes are also a major contributing factor to the deterioration of facilities,” said eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana.

“The unit has identified an urgent need to rehabilitate and upgrade the Kings Park Pool and other key facilities that could not be rehabilitated previously due to financial constraints.”

The Exco report acknowledged that “Most of the facilities within the PRC Unit have deteriorated because of ageing infrastructure and lack of maintenance due to budget constraints”.

The City did not address questions about schedules for work to begin or an expected completion date for Kings Park Pool.

Neither were questions asking for details on the “other key facilities” included in the report.Dear Masters Swimmers,

We were ready to send out the invitation, entry form and info pack to the 40th SA Masters swimming champs. However, we have just been informed that Kings Park pool will be closed for major maintenance and won’t be available for our Nationals in March 2025. We are urgently exploring alternative pools.

Please hold off on making flight and accommodation bookings until we confirm a new pool.

We had initially reserved the dates with KZN Aquatics and eThekwini officials over a year ago and reconfirmed them before Jozi Nationals. When we first heard of planned repairs at the end of Sept 2024, we reconfirmed with KZNA and ETM and were assured that our dates were prioritized. At that time, we also looked into other pool options in eThekwini and Richards Bay but did not finalize them.

We’ll keep you posted as soon as arrangements are finalized.

Best regards,
LOC and KZN Masters Swimming
Carina Hambloch and Wolfgang Fechter