eThekwini councillor Ernest Smith called for disciplinary action to be taken against those responsible for stalling the Mitchell Park playground refurbishment project. 

Durban’s most popular playground will remain closed through the 2025 and 2026 festive season while the municipality awaits a response from a donor to replace the existing playground equipment. Mitchell Park has four sections:

1. The Blue Zoo restaurant which has been closed since 2021.
2. The park
3. The zoo
4. The playground area which has been closed since April 2025.

Smith stated that he learned on Friday last week that the donor had withdrawn from the project.

“The donor cited a lack of communication, transparency, and unprofessionalism of eThekwini municipality. This matter has been raised with officials, and requests for disciplinary processes to be taken against those who handled the matter,” he said. 

Smith, the Ward 27 councillor, has received criticism from the public on social media regarding the closure of the playground. Commenting on the Morningside Community Safety Forum, Christopher Mark Lowe stated:

“Pathetic. The DA ward councillor should hang his head in absolute shame.”

On Saturday, Smith said he understood the frustration around the playground installation. He said a donor approached the city in March 2025 to assist the Parks department in refurbishing the playground, with all the necessary plans having been submitted to the department for attention.

He said this included the groundwork, presentations, land surveying, and architectural drawings, which were done at no cost to the municipality. Smith opened up on his challenges with eThekwini officials. 

“There had been communications between myself and officials in the departments to try and get some sort of time frame on this project. Multiple emails to officials also yielded minimal results. This led him to approach the city manager for assistance, as the acting heads of department had failed to communicate with the donor despite numerous meetings and follow-up requests. These were ignored,” Smith said.  

Smith said the majority of emails had still gone unanswered until the head of Park Recreation and Culture was reinstated in October 2025. Smith said that on December 3, 2025, he was informed that a meeting had been held, and that the presentation would be revised and the report about the playground would be resubmitted. 

“I feel it is necessary to update the public on the issues we are facing as councillors when we fight for these issues on an ongoing basis,” Smith said. 

Commenting on the playground closure on November 24, 2025, municipal spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, said they were evaluating a generous proposal by a local business to donate a world-class playground, intended to replace the current playground at Mitchell Park. She said that with all major donations, the process must follow the appropriate protocols.

“Given that this proposal coincides with broader precinct planning efforts, it was deemed prudent to allow the donation process to begin and follow due course. The inconvenience is well acknowledged, and we sincerely apologise,” Sisilana said. 

She added that the playground donation presents a valuable opportunity for the municipality to allocate resources to other pressing community needs, instead of spending on superficial fixes and then demolishing the play area again,” she said. 

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

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