Viren Jagarnath, Chairperson of Clyde Pinelands Football Club.
Viren Jagarnath
There are few moments in our country’s sporting history that compare to the joy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup: the vuvuzelas, the hope, and the South African flags that became as familiar on our cars as windscreen wipers. Recently, I caught a glimpse of that same spirit when Bafana Bafana, for the first time ever, qualified for the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup. This monumental win has reminded us of the game’s enduring power to unite.
Football brings people together from different backgrounds, cultures, and communities, a deeply precious quality. Yet today, one of Cape Town’s oldest expressions of that ideal, Clyde Pinelands Football Club, faces an uncertain future under draft urban development plans.
The City of Cape Town’s proposed redevelopment of the King David Mowbray Golf Club site must be taken seriously. The 74-hectare property, which includes our clubhouse and fields, has been earmarked for approximately 6700 residential units along with commercial and industrial space. The City’s own documentation states that Clyde would be “retained on site at a significantly diminished scale.” That phrase does a great deal of work, but really, it signals that our club, as we know it, would cease to exist.
