After ten years and R15-million, this municipal swimming pool is a hole in the ground

A hole overgrown with weeds is all there is to show for the pool. The photograph was taken on 26 August 2026. Photos: Tsoanelo Sefoloko

• Work on the Ohlange public swimming pool started in 2016, but the pool is still not complete.
• The eThekwini municipality says the first contract was terminated after about R15-million of an initial R80-million budget for the facility had been spent.
• Since then the buildings have been vandalised and the grounds left overgrown.
• The municipality said work would start again in April, but when we returned in August, nothing had been done.

Millions of rands have been spent to build a public swimming pool in Ohlange in Inanda, Durban. But ten years after work started, there is still just a hole in the ground.

The R80-million project started in 2016, but construction was stopped in 2020 due to the contractor’s poor performance. Since then, its unfinished buildings have been vandalised, the windows stripped and the grounds are overgrown.

The nearest swimming pool is about eight kilometres away in KwaMashu. Many people can’t afford taxi fare to get there.

GroundUp first visited the site in March 2026 and sent questions to the municipality. It said a new contractor would resume work at the end of April.

When we returned in August, we found two security guards with their dogs and no sign that work had restarted.

Nana Khumalo runs two soccer clubs for girls and boys. “I started the clubs after seeing that the youngsters don’t have any sport. The swimming pool was going to make a huge difference. We still need the swimming pool,” said Khumalo.

Resident Mzokhona Gubese said, “We have youth roaming the streets because we don’t have enough sports facilities.”

DA PR councillor Xoliswa Mdlazi said her questions about the project had been ignored by the municipality. “It is clear that someone from the municipality doesn’t want the area to be developed,” said Mdlazi.

EThekwini spokesperson Senzelwe Mzila said the project had been revised to increase the size of the main pool and add toilets and changing rooms. This would require “an additional floor above the existing building”.

He said about R15-million of the initial R80-million budget was spent. Work included the construction of an administration building, pump house, a two-storey lifeguard tower, an electrical substation, retaining walls and excavation of the main pool. But the contract had been terminated due to “poor performance”.

Mzila said work to complete the swimming pool had restarted. But when we checked on Monday, there were no workers on site. Asked about this, Mzila said, “The absence of workers on site is due to the month-end period during which contractors may allow their employees a few days off.”

Work on the pool and buildings started in 2016 and has still not been completed.

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