What is fact, fiction about MSC Court?

Dec 19, 2010 Sports

The Mackenzie Sports Club Basketball Court before it was left dug up and ring removed for rehabilitation works.

-Basketball in Linden at its lowest point

By Edison Jefford
One of the elementary lessons of journalism propagates that facts are superior to fiction and where facts are established there should be no fiction. Fact and fiction are therefore diametrically opposed in this profession, especially in the print media, the Fourth Estate.
I opened up a can of worms when in October I wrote an informed news story on the fact that construction works at the Mackenzie Sports Club Basketball Court was yet to commence even though the various contracts had been awarded to contractors.
The news item appeared on a Friday and the following day, Presidential Advisor on Youth Empowerment, Odinga Lumumba hosted a press conference to refute the article, blaming the non-commencement of works on one of the contractors’ broken-down paver.
Lumumba accused me of attempting to coerce Government “to take away the contracts from small contractors to facilitate the LABA (Linden Amateur Basketball Association) timetable” in a manner that any sane mind would believe unimaginable.
Lumumba had been part of committing to the community the completion of the Basketball Court before the year ends. At least that is what he reportedly told the LABA President, Abdulla Hamid during an outreach programme in Linden earlier this year.
I took his accusations, stuck to the facts and followed the story closely. My next stop was Henry Rodney, the Regional Executive Officer in Linden, who assured that the works will commence in the allotted timeframe and that he is in contact with the contractors.
“I have spoken to the contractor after the contract was awarded and what I can tell you is that the works will be done within the stipulated period. All necessary work will be completed within the necessary periods in the contracts,” Rodney told this writer in October.
For public knowledge, more than two months have elapsed and no work has since started on the MSC Basketball Court despite contracts being awarded. The year is almost completed and there has been absolute silence surrounding the basketball court project.
I would hate to think that tax payers’ money is awarded to contractors with broken-down pavers, who, in there own time, would be granted infinite leverage over projects that are critical to both sport and community development. Is that fact or fiction?
I would rather not assume that the Regional Executive Office in Linden is not holding the contractors accountable in this extremely sensitive matter. What are the facts, what is fiction?
What I know is that the LABA has no knowledge on the status of their Headquarters. The decline of the sport in Linden because of lack of competitions and playing time reached its climax last month when both its junior and senior All-Star basketball teams plunged to defeats in the All-Star Weekend for the first time in the event’s history.