Play area a hangout for vagrants & vandals

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — A kids playground in Graaff-Reinet's Park Street has for numerous years instead been a playground for vandals and vagrants.

The playground was created years ago by the local municipality to specifically enable the community's children to play there, and many Graaff-Reinetters still have fond memories of time spent on the play equipment as children.

For years now residents have complained about the anti-social behaviour at this playground after it became a hangout for groups of teenagers and vagrants.

The children’s play area in the park has been vandalised over time to such an extent that families choose not to take their kids to the park anymore.

Broken bottles, graffiti and broken equipment deter any parent hoping to make use of the facilities. Apart from the dangerous objects lying around, residents report that there are often used condoms lying around, with drug paraphernalia having also been spotted.

The lack of equipment maintenance has also led to some residents fearing that the rusted and broken equipment could endanger the children making use of it.

A neighbour who has lived near the park for several years said that groups of youngsters regularly congregate around the play area.

“Teenagers regularly hang out over there at night and especially when the weather is nice. While congregating there, bottles are smashed and litter is strewn about," she said. "On several occasions, it had also become necessary to chase away vagrants using the park as accommodation for the night. Fights have also often erupted in the early hours of the morning with the ensuing shouting and screaming disturbing the neighbourhood."

Residents near the playground are of the opinion that should the municipality be unable to maintain the park, a very tall fence should be put up with entry being prohibited.

This will hopefully deter any vagrants and vandals who will now have no reason to visit the playground. It will also prevent an unfortunate accident on the ill-maintained equipment.

In response to queries in this regard, Leolynn Smith, a spokesperson for the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality said: "The municipality had an agreement with a local nonprofit organisation who had expressed their desire to take over the maintenance of the park as a community project. According to these negotiations between the municipality and the organisation, the group was still lobbying for funding to clean and maintain the park. However, the group disbanded and the municipality was unaware of this recent development. In light of this, this issue will receive immediate attention from the municipality."

Youngsters step up

Penny Slade, a Park Street resident, recently heard bottles being broken - once again - in this playground.

Upon inspection, she saw two little boys throwing and breaking some of the many glass bottles lying around on the playground's terrain.

She approached them, engaged them in conversation, and continued to explain the dangers and nasty injuries these glass shards could inflict.

A short while later there was a knock at her door and the same two youngsters stood on her front step requesting a black bag.

According to Slade, they then proceeded to collect a lot of the glass lying around placing it in the bag.

"A couple of days later the same little fellows were seen in the park digging up weeds and sweeping," said Slade. "Well done boys for showing a great attitude - true little leaders."