The City of Johannesburg will close all of its public swimming pools from Monday, 16 November, until further notice. The city said the closure was caused by a critical shortage of chlorine.
The decision was announced as temperatures were expected to reach the 30s over the weekend. The South African Weather Service has forecast a hotter than average summer.
“We know how vital our public pools are to families and young people trying to beat the heat right now, and we share the community’s disappointment,” said acting director of community development Mbulelo Bezu.
“However, the health and safety of our residents must always come first. Operating unchlorinated pools is unsafe, so we made the difficult decision to close the facilities while we urgently resolve this supply chain disruption,” Bezu said.
The city’s Department of Community Development said it knew the closure would frustrate residents. It said families and young people who use the pools in warm months would be hit hardest.
The department warned that running pools without the right chemicals could put swimmers’ health at risk. It said it had started emergency buying steps to get chlorine and other pool chemicals.
Some of the worst affected pools could close even before Monday, the department said. Technical teams will start work to restore the pools once new chemical supplies arrive.
The city has not given a date for the pools to reopen. Bezu said the city expected to reopen them once the buying process was finished. He said the city would give daily updates until swimmers could return.
This is not the first problem with the city’s pools this season. Johannesburg first planned to open its public pools on 1 September but missed that date.
The city then missed a second target of 1 October. Only some pools opened in the middle of October.
At the time, the city blamed a shortage of chemicals. It also said it did not have enough lifeguards and cashiers.
In October, at least 3,750kg of pool chemicals were found so that 26 of the city’s 57 public pools could reopen. The city also needed to hire or contract 160 lifeguards and 40 more cashiers to staff the pools.
The new chlorine shortage means residents will lose access to the pools just weeks after some of them opened again.
Source: this article is based on reporting by The South African. Image: The South African. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.