By Chris Totobela
Local football teams are up in arms after an announcement was made regarding the Makana Music Festival’s venue. This year’s edition was scheduled to take place at the Mickey Yili Stadium on 16 December and today, just two days before the musical event nothing has been done at Mickey Yili Stadium. This event will now take place at the only home of local football JD Dlepu Stadium which was left damaged after last year’s event and has been closed since.
Speaking to Grocott’s Mail, Makana Tigers and MCF councillor Thandisizwe Matebese blamed the Makana LFA executive. “Football is not respected in this town and people do as they please. Our leaders are weak and that is why this will continue to happen. We were forced to go and play at the army base for the whole year but now the stadium is being prepared for something that has nothing to do with football,” said Matebese.
Eleven Attackers’ Thanduxolo Faxi echoed the same sentiments saying, “This is very sad for local football and this shows how weak our leaders are. The same event is the reason why our teams suffered for the whole year but our municipal officials are allowing the same event that destroyed our field to take place there again”.
Louis Ntlanjeni from Joza Callies, one of the oldest clubs in Makhanda was not happy at all with the decision. “This is the only field we have and what is happening is a total disrespect for our sport and it is hard to believe that the municipality is failing us once again. We spent a lot of money transporting players to the army base and other fields while Dlepu was closed for renovations which never happened. This event doesn’t even contribute to the development of local football, they do not plough back to local football instead they are destroying the only facility we have,” he said.
Makana LFA chairman Afika Adam responded to some of the issues raised. “After last year’s incident where Dlepu was damaged we met the municipality officials and agreed that this event will never take place there again thus it was moved to Mickey Yili Stadium this year. It came as a surprise when I was told that the event will now take place at JD Dlepu Stadium and we were not even consulted as the custodians of football. The Parks [and Recreation]Department which looks after the fields does not treat us with respect and this is not the first time that this thing is happening. We instructed our teams to go and play in alternative venues as Dlepu was closed for renovations. We struggled the whole year while nothing was happening at JD Dlepu but now just for a music event we see some activities there. We are not against the music festival but we feel undermined,” Adam said.
He added: “Football has nothing to gain in this event and even after last year’s edition no one held the organisers accountable for the damage they caused at Dlepu.”
The whole football fraternity is not satisfied with this decision and I think it is high time that the organisers plough back to local football even if they sponsor one tournament or league prizes for both divisions.
Grocott’s Mail attempted to get a response from the Department of Parks and Recreation and haven’t received one at time of publication.
