Helen Zille goes fishing in a broken Joburg swimming pool

By Dylan Bettencourt

• Helen Zille visited a broken public pool in Windsor West to show how the City of Johannesburg neglects community facilities.

• Johannesburg spokesperson Nthathisi Modingoane said the city is looking for a private partner to help fix the broken swimming pool.

Helen Zille has taken another aim at the City of Johannesburg for failing to look after the community. This follows a video of her swimming in a giant pothole that went viral. That pothole was caused by a burst pipe and a road that was falling apart.

Now the 74-year-old has visited a broken public swimming pool in Windsor West, Randburg. The city has neglected the pool for many years. In a new video, Zille sits in a camping chair with a fishing rod in the murky water.

She joked about the life in the water, which was full of algae, tadpoles and plastic litter. Zille said that the government has let this site and many others go to ruin. She said the site is now used for dumping and illegal activity.

The pool is a danger to the people living there. Zille blamed the state of the city on the coalition between the ANC, PA and ActionSA. Windsor West is just one of many pools in Johannesburg that have been left to rot.

Even though it was upgraded a few years ago, it never opened. Instead, thieves stole the equipment and the buildings were destroyed. The area now attracts vagrants and is a health risk.

After Zille’s pothole video, the city acted fast to fix the road. Now people are waiting to see if they will fix this pool too. Nthathisi Modingoane, a spokesperson for the City of Johannesburg, said the department is looking for a private partner to help with the pool.

Reports show that only half of the city’s 60 public pools were open last summer.

Pictured above: Helen Zille sits in a camping chair with a fishing rod at a ruined municipal pool.

Image source: Helen Zille/Facebook