MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 21st AUGUST 2019

MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING OF THE
NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION
HELD AT SHOP 56 OF THE KILLARNEY MALL
ON WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2019 AT 17H00

PRESENT: Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Ruth Kuper (Gleneagles); Charles Whyte (Beverley Heights); Margaret Urban (Hanover Gate); Mike Kalk (Brenthurst Court); Floh Thiele (La Carmague); Carmen Roets (Dumbarton Oaks); Dimitri Clayton (Brenthurst Court); Annica Marincowitz (Chartwell); Hajee Hoosen (Sloane Square); Dean Dada (RCS Security); Julie Wilson (Killarney Hills); Tony Mantle (Gleneagles).

1. WELCOME
Wayne welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. APOLOGIES RECEIVED
Eleanor Huggett (Ward Councillor); Sergeant NH Mdlolo (SAPS); Harry Rutenberg (Sevenoaks);
Dalien Rutenberg (Glenhof Gardens); Elena Joaquim (St Johns Wood); Vivienne Cobbett (Biarritz); George Kymdell (NAMA).

3. DISCUSSION OF TIME CONSTRAINT
• We will strive to keep the discussions short and relevant, so as to finish by 6pm.
• Wayne has to leave early to attend his building’s AGM, so Charles will chair most of the meeting.

4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
• The Minutes of the previous meeting were taken as read, and were approved.

5. SECURITY FEEDBACK / SECTOR CRIME FORUM
• Sergeant Mdlolo was not in attendance, and the crime statistics for the past month are not yet available. The sudden flare-up of serious crimes in the previous month seems to have faded out, but we need to continue to exercise caution.
• Cllr Huggett also apologised for this meeting, to attend an emergency meeting to address the issue of the Alexandra people who are evicting residents from homes in Orange Grove, and giving these homes to people who are “on their list”. Most of the affected homes belong to the Council, but some privately-owned homes have been affected as well. This is a serious development.
• We do not yet have a sustainable solution for 1st Street. Our concerns have been escalated as high as the mayor, and we wait in hope for a visible improvement from JMPD. The mayor has been busy fending off a vote of no confidence, and meanwhile the taxis continue much as before, as does the urinating and litter.
• However there has been some substantial progress thus far. Our efforts at the town planning department have revealed that an “in-house” taxi facility is now a standard requirement for all future mall developments. We have confirmed that the Killarney Mall has applied for permission to develop an extra 5021 square metres, and we have now been told by the town planning department that this project has been held up for almost a year due to some kind of unfulfilled condition. We are persisting here, with help from the ward councillor.
• CityProp have gone silent, but their willingness to pay for We Love Killarney’s expensive plan to build an illegal taxi facility on our pavements seems to indicate that they are under major internal pressure on this issue.
• The SAPS do still conduct occasional random raids on the alcohol and drug sellers, but more is needed. Some of the negative activity has already moved away to 2nd Street, so the pressure is clearly having some effect, but we now need to increase the pressure in 2nd Street as well.
• The big street parties in 1st Street outside Hyde Court have largely been eliminated, due partly to our pressure for more by-law enforcement. However we are waiting to see what happens as we get closer to Christmas.
• The scrap cars that were dumped in 1st Street by Dr Martin were all removed, reasonably quickly, and this was surely a once-off event.
• JMPD has repeatedly “promised” us a CBD security camera at the taxi rank, together with JMPD response teams, but no implementation date has been confirmed.
• JMPD will be graduating 1500 new officers in October, and we have been “promised” a greater JMPD presence thereafter.
• We have applied to join the project where the residents provide JMPD with a car, in exchange for two dedicated officers. High-level JMPD officers have been verbally supportive, but we are still waiting for their official response.
• While we continue to push JMPD for better law-enforcement, our main thrust now is to obtain the full details on the Mall’s intended plans, which might potentially require them to provide for an in-house taxi facility. The odds are in our favour, but the timing is still totally uncertain.
• Floh reported back from the CPF meeting that police operations are continuing, but that police and JMPD resources are frequently diverted to attend to issues such as protest marches, and riots against foreigners and drug dealers that often result in looting.
• It was noted that residents are becoming frustrated with the slow progress of law enforcement, and are concerned that people who break the law appear to be allowed to get away with doing so. However the meeting strongly emphasised that the NKRA is itself a law-abiding organisation which will never knowingly countenance any course of action which contravenes any law or by-law.
• Sgt Mdlolo can be contacted on 071 675 6000. Please call her directly if there is any problem requiring the SAPS.
• When you notice a problem developing with a street party or similar, please first call the City emergency hotline on 011 375 5911 and ask the operator to log a call for you. Don’t let them just transfer you to JMPD, make sure they first log a call for you with a reference number. If JMPD don’t thereafter arrive within about 30 minutes, then contact the Councillor with your reference number and ask her to chase JMPD for service.
• Councillor Huggett can be contacted by the community at any time, by SMS or WhatsApp, on 071 785 8068.

6. FEEDBACK FROM COUNCILLORS
• Cllr Huggett was not able to attend the meeting. She has informed us that she is pursuing the Mall development issue through the channels, and that she calls on JMPD regularly to act in 1st Street. She has promised to maintain the pressure.

7. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
• The ablution building in the park has a number of maintenance requirements, which have been reported to City Parks but have not yet been fixed. Cllr Huggett will follow up on these for us.
• We have started to implement our Spring Plan for the gardens in the park. The basic idea is to properly maintain what we currently have, and to increase the amount of flowering plants where possible, but using water-wise varieties as much as we can to better withstand the dry winters and hot summers, and clustering the vulnerable plants to facilitate bucket watering.
• We have requested that City Parks prune the dead branches off the jacaranda trees, so reduce the risk of them snapping in high winds and causing damage or injury. The rubber tree at the 4th Ave gate had to be cut right down, because it was pushing against the fence. It is much too close to the fence for that type of tree, but when it grows back up it will be cultivated as a bush, and kept off the fence in future. Similarly, the avocado trees will be kept pruned to about head height and cultivated to spread sideways rather than grow upward, so that the future fruit is accessible, and so that the trees never pose any danger.
• The plants near the playground area are repeatedly trampled by children in the course of their games. We will transplant the survivors into safer flowerbeds a bit further away, and either replace them with hardier options, or allow the grass to reclaim the beds.
• The very sunny 4th Ave pavement is being replanted with colourful water-wise flowers, and the very shady 2nd Ave pavement will be given additional water-wise ivy plants to cover the sand completely, as well as some paved pathways for pedestrians through the vegetation.
• Nolicent our park gardener has some tools which were bought by Kayte, and from time to time he borrows specialised tools from buildings when he needs them. The meeting resolved that the NKRA will buy additional tools for Nolicent where necessary.
• The meeting resolved that the annual Community Day in the Park should be moved to the first weekend in December, to access better weather. The last few annual events have suffered from residual winter weather. Most of the children who are present at our Community Days are not likely to be going on holiday in early December.
• A number of our pavements are in a poor state, caused by poor quality municipal repairs as well as the extensive trenching by multiple fibre optic companies. This poses a safety risk to pedestrians, especially at night. The meeting resolved to source quotes to repair the pavements in 2nd Ave, as a start. Once we know what this will cost, we will make formal decisions.
• We are also looking at replacing missing manhole covers. The JRA promised to do this long ago, but nothing has happened.
• Please would all residents continue to report problems on roads and pavements to the JRA at http://www.jra.org.za/find-and-fix-mobile-app, or call 011 375 5555. Please keep the reference numbers for follow-up.
• Please also use the number 0860 562 874 to report all road and pavement-related problems to the municipality. This includes all cases of rubble being dumped on pavements, potholes in roads or pavements, road signs in need of repair, streetlights not working, blocked storm-drains, or traffic lights out of order. You can also report all of these issues to the call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342. Please keep the reference numbers for follow-up.

8. FINANCE AND MEMBERSHIP
• There have been no changes in membership since the last meeting.

9. GENERAL
• Cllr Huggett has provided us with the new forms to be used when applying for pensioner rebates on municipal rates and taxes. The thresholds have been raised slightly. You can obtain these forms from the NKRA website, at http://www.nkra.org.za/municipal-rates-rebates/

The meeting was closed, with thanks to the Killarney Mall for hosting us.

Our next meeting will be held on
WEDNESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2019 at 5pm

PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS

JMPD call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342
JMPD Control Room – 011 758 9620
City emergency hotline on 011 375 5911
SAPS patrol van – 071 675 6001
If you get no response from the patrol van, please call 10111
Councillor Huggett – by SMS or WhatsApp – 071 785 8068