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THE young swimmers at Retreat Aquatics Club are still braving the cold and wind, despite an announcement in 2003 that the Retreat club had entered the fast lane for an indoor heated swimming pool.

Three years later, the swimmers are still thrashing though the icy water at their windswept venue that offers no protection from the howling south-easter in summer.

Yet, when Swimming SA broke the news of the Lotto windfall, they said that R4,9 million from the R12 million grant received was earmarked for a heated pool at the Retreat public amenity where the 31-year-old club is based in Concert Boulevard.

Now SSA appears to be ducking and diving questions on why the club still has no sheltered, heated pool. The Retreat club is also adamant that the SSA used the Lotto funds on "unnecessary alteration work instead of working on the completion of the heated pool".

When People's Post called the SSA office in Johannesburg, Shaun Adriaanse, acting chief operations officer of SSA, said the R4,9 million from the Lotto Board was insufficient to install the indoor pool.

He says all the money was spent on a new filtration plant, replacing pool tiles and paving, and extending and re-painting the complex.

Adriaanse says the SSA would make another appeal for additional funding for the heated pool when a new Lotta Board is appointed next year.

Since August, however, Adriaanse has not kept an undertaking to provide a written response to this newspaper's questions.

They include whether consultancy fees for the Durban-based developer (Dancor) had affected funding, whether SSA had prioritised the SSA High Performance Centre, that includes a heated pool, at the University of the Western Cape as its flagship in the Cape Metro, and if the SSA was guilty of breaking an agreement with the club to construct a covered pool for training and competitions.

Adriaanse said on Friday, 20 October: "Sorry, I am too busy at the moment with other urgent issues to write SSA's response." A week earlier, he said he was "busy with the letter".

When Norman Braaf, the chairperson of the Retreat club, was contacted he said his club has been waiting since 2004 for the SSA "to address our (Retreat's) concerns in writing".

"We want to know how the money was spent. But the SSA appears reluctant to keep us properly informed," says Braaf.

He said the club's executive met on numerous occasions with SSA officials to find out what was holding up work at the pool.

The SSA office-bearers included Adriaanse, Jace Naidoo, the incumbent SSA president, and Gideon Sam, the SSA president when the Lotto funding was announced in 2003.

"They all promised to act on the matter but nothing positive has happened. Their response is disappointing, and frustrating to our efforts to promote swimming across the community.

"The plan was to convert the existing 25 metre-long pool into a heated indoor facility. But the new filtration plant (SSA says it cost R1,8 million), tiling and paving was not the responsibility of the developer," says Braaf.

The council that runs all public pools was supposed to attend to that kind of work, added Braaf.

He said during winter when the Retreat pool was a no-go zone his swimmers had to make a 50 km return trip to the Long Street indoor pool in Cape Town to train for competitions. The Long Street and Strand pools are the only public heated pools in the Cape Metro area.

Braaf said the club had lost several promising swimmers to clubs such as Barracuda and Vineyard, which either train at heated pools at Wynberg Military Base, at private health gyms in the southern suburbs or at the UWC in Bellville-South.

"We cannot blame these swimmers when they decide to join clubs that have the use of better facilities," says Braaf.

He said that the hold-up on completing the indoor pool has not only hampered the club's preparations for competitions, but also the learn-to-swim programmes that are aimed at high and primary school pupils, in particular.

"In our application for Lotto funding we said a heated pool would boost our learn-to-swim programmes in winter. It is difficult to run these programmes during summer because schools are busy with the end-of-year examinations," said Braaf.

He said clubs like Manta (Wynberg) and Westridge (Mitchell's Plain) could also share the use of the indoor venue.

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