Durban mayor James Nxumalo has challenged a recent survey, naming Cape Town as the city with the fittest people in SA.
|||Durban -
EThekwini Municipality mayor James Nxumalo has challenged a recent survey, naming Cape Town as the city with the fittest people in the country.
A shocked Nxumalo questioned the criteria used to rank the cities, which placed Durban fourth after Port Elizabeth and Pretoria. Joburg was fifth and sixth, according to an index by Discovery Vitality.
“Us, fourth? No ways,” said the mayor on Friday.
“Durban has the fittest people in the country, and possibly in the world.”
Nxumalo questioned what the results were based on, saying the city had the most number of fitness-driven activities and events.
“We just had the ECR Big Walk that saw more than 33 000 people participating. Two weeks ago we hosted the Comrades and next weekend we will have the Spar Ladies Walk, where we are expecting more than 15 000 ladies.
“How then do these people place Durban so far down the pecking order when our people are active all year round and we are the only city that has two seasons all year - summer and summer, which allows a lot of outdoors activities,” Nxumalo protested.
The study found that the Cape Town’s urban infrastructure gave Capetonians the edge when it came to facilities and an environment that encouraged and facilitated exercise.
The city also had the greatest number of sports clubs, gyms, fitness facilities, and parks per 100 000 people.
Jill Borresen, a clinical wellness manager - who was part of the advisory board, which consisted of University of Cape Town academics - conceded that Durban had made a number of significant strides.
Borresen, however, said while the city was not without facilities, it ranked low because of the lack of public participation.
She suggested that Durban produce and promote a citywide map of parks, trails, cycling and walking routes and facilities that offered sports and physical activity programmes, to educate people about the outdoor facilities the city offered.
“The city can increase visibility of traffic officials along the Suncoast cycle routes to ensure that motorists are not using it during the designated ‘cyclists only’ times to encourage cyclists to make use of this route.
“In addition to this, the city can increase, improve and promote park safety and implement free outdoor gym and sport facilities,” said Borresen. - Independent on Saturday