KwaZulu-Natal Sport MEC, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi has announced that her department had requested the eThekwini Municipality to pay back a R10 million grant it received from the provincial government to build the controversial Hoy Park Sport Complex.
The development of the R300 million complex in Durban has been stalled since 2015 due to legal wrangling.
Sithole-Moloi told the legislature in her budget speech that the provincial government had set aside a total of R30 million for the project, but that this would now be used for other sporting projects in the province.
KwaZulu-Natal Sport MEC, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi is concerned about the slow pace of transformation in South Africa’s multi-coded international teams.
She says one of the challenges is the fact that municipalities use money they receive for sport development from the national government, to rather deliver basic services.
R48-million from her budget of R450 million will be used to set up another hundred sport facilities in townships and rural areas in the coming year.
These include fields where children can kick around a ball, outdoor fitness centres, as well as ball sports courts. The department will also contribute nearly R10 million to support sports academies.
