The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is refusing to manage the newly built Motherwell Multipurpose Centre, saying it does not meet the standards of its other sporting facilities.
This could lead to further delays in officially opening the NU29 facility.
The R21m facility, which is set to be named after antiapartheid activist Siphiwo Mthimkhulu, was meant to be transferred from the provincial human settlements department to the municipality in June.
The centre was meant to be opened on June 22 by Eastern Cape human settlements MEC Mlungisi Mvoko but the event was postponed without explanation.
The facility will house a netball court, basketball court, hall, dressing rooms and some government departments.
Speaking at a mayoral committee meeting on Thursday, the metro’s human settlements political head, Nqaba Bhanga, said the municipality could not accept the centre in its present state.
He said the biggest problem was the facility’s floor tiling.
“The facility was supposed to be handed over to the city three weeks ago, but due to the state of the facility the city has refused to accept it because it does not meet our standard for a sporting facility.
“We are not going to take a multipurpose centre that is half-cooked – it does not meet our standards to provide quality services to our people,” Bhanga said.“We appreciate that there must be intervention from the provincial government to give us facilities, but we cannot compromise our standards as a city because we have developed quality sports facilities.
“Having a sports facility that looks like that one . . . the tiling there is very terrible, it looks like kitchen tiling.
“If we open that centre, within three weeks the tiling is going to fall apart.”
He said the office of the MEC had noted the metro’s concerns.
On Thursday, provincial human settlements head of department Gaster Sharpley said it would negotiate with the municipality to open the facility without an official opening.
Sharpley said provincial and municipal standards differed.
“The metro has particular standards of what they consider to be a sports centre and province has particular standards as to what qualifies as an indoor sports centre,” he said.
Sharpley said this was a case of specifications rather than defects in the building.
“We said to them that there are no defects, the issue is not the quality of work.
“We are saying they must take it over so they can do the changes they want to make the building meet their standards.”
Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip commended the officials who were vigilant.
“We do want facilities and we want them done properly. We want them to be functional and sustainably functional.”
Trollip said discussions with Mvoko were ongoing.