Cape Town - A court case battle is looming against the City for the lease of a sports field at Upper Cambridge, Walmer Estate, District Six.
This after the amateur football team, Young Mens Own (YMO) St Luke’s Football club which currently holds the lease of the grounds, received notice that an adjacent field that YMO used as a training facility would be let out to District Six FC.
This after YMO asked the City to include this field in their lease.
YMO, which is 105 years old, said they would soon bring an urgent high court application to stop the City from granting the lease for the portion of the erf. YMO’s 10-year lease expires in 2028.
Meanwhile, the club has started to petition the City to allow it to have exclusive rights to use the premises.
The club said for the past two years, after District Six FC started using a portion of the grounds, it had been limiting the team’s members from utilising their ground to its full capacity, which it said had already resulted in the team not being able to practise at their home ground.
The petition’s author and member of the club, Tawrieq Sydow, said the existing clubhouse and general municipal services had been vandalised as a result of the letting of these premises.
Sydow said newer access at the back of the field, formalised by the rival club, was enabling criminals to break in and steal from the clubhouse. He said this also posed a security risk to the residents of Walmer Estate.
Club chairperson Mark Slinger said there was no running water, electricity or ablution facilities at the other portion of the field where the City was considering the lease.
He said there was also no subdivision of the property and questioned how the City would lease it.
“If the City gives them a lease with no subdivision, how would they provide toilets and running water? With no subdivision, you cannot have two ratepayers on one erf. Currently, their people are using our facility where we are paying the rates,” he said.
Slinger said District Six FC was only using the name, as its owner was a resident of Camps Bay, while the club was registered in Kenilworth and the team featured in the Hanover Park League.
Club secretary Maegan Cupido said since the arrival of District Six FC two years ago, the condition of the field and its surrounds had significantly deteriorated.
“The City has a strict policy of utilising the facility for a maximum of eight hours a day. Our club has five senior and 5 junior teams, which is impossible to use, considering that a match is 90 minutes.
“With the added club, there is now too much activity on the field. For many years we have kept vagrants out and repaired fences, only for the City to give a portion of the field to a new team.
“From 2020, during the heart of Covid-19, these kids defecated and urinated in the bush. Their club said it would provide toilets, which happened once, and has resulted in an unhealthy environment,” she said.
District 6 FC founder member Melroy Klein denied that the club was the cause of the deteriorating state of the field.
Klein alleged that YMO was subletting the field to “foreigners” who ran a league for months, which he said resulted in the state of the field.
Klein said the club had been hiring a backfield for the past two years with no amenities. He said the club had now applied for the lease because they don't have water, a toilet, and a dressing room.
He said only when the club has a lease they would be able to have a dressing room and ablution services.
“In the last two years there were no problems with YMO with us utilising the backfield and it was only after the City wanted to give us a lease that MYO started with the lies and propaganda.
“We have to apply for the lease, that is the Council rules. The application is only for the backfield and not the YMO field,” he said.
Klein also dismissed claims that he was not a Walmer Estate resident.
The City said the relevant department was looking into the issue and busy collating the necessary information. It said it would respond in detail once all the information was received.