MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 21st AUGUST 2024

MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING OF THE

NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION

HELD VIRTUALLY OVER THE INTERNET

ON WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2024 at 18H30

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PRESENT:        Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Charles Whyte (Beverley Heights); David Spencer (Brenthurst Court); Robyn Clark (Killarney Park); Mark Baard (Devon Place); Floh Thiele (La Camargue); Eleanor Huggett (Ward Councillor); Trish Terry (Gleneagles); Nolan Ramasamy (Knightsbridge); Safiyyah Ayob (Highbury); Yusuf Dadoo; Kayte Denham.

1.   WELCOME

• Wayne opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees.

2.   APOLOGIES RECEIVED

• Nadia Nikakhtar (Killarney Park); Jaco le Roux (Chartwell).

3.   DISCUSSION OF TIME CONSTRAINT

• We will try to keep the meeting to one hour if possible.

4.   CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES, AND MATTERS ARISING

• The minutes of the previous meeting have been circulated to all attendees, and have been approved by them. The details thereof were incorporated into the monthly newsletter.

5.   STATUS OF OUR SUBURB, AND LIST OF ISSUES REQUIRING ACTION

• Street and pavement repair project-: The meeting resolved to buy one truckload of asphalt to repair as many pavements and potholes as we can manage with that quantity of material. This will cost about R22,000. Further projects can be undertaken thereafter if needed. This proposal has been communicated to all members repeatedly, and nobody has objected.
• Floh will follow up with the Discovery Pothole Patrol to see if they can do anything for us, failing which we will undertake this repair before the end of August.
• Repainting street names on kerbs-: Charles has a supplier willing to do this work for R11,500. Other residents have suggested alternative suppliers and painters, but we only have cost estimates and not have solid quotes. If we can get better quotes then we will pursue them, failing which we will proceed at R11,500. Charles will speak with Ismail again to close the loop.
• New community upliftment initiative, fundraising for “Themba Cleanup Projects”-: The meeting agreed that this is a very valuable initiative, which should be supported. The handful of residents who have developed and driven this initiative, are warmly thanked. Themba and his team are costing R400 per day, and the various cleaning projects are currently being paid for by various residents, on a voluntarily ad hoc basis. The meeting agreed that the NKRA should contribute R2,000 per month toward these cleaning projects, at R24,000 per annum, so as to provide them with at least five days’ worth of funding per month to support on-going cleaning efforts. This proposal will be communicated to the members via the next newsletter, and if there are no objections, a resolution will be passed at the September meeting.
• The Councillor noted that the municipality runs a program called the Augmented Field Services, which does clean-up projects around Region F. She will contact them to put the M1 motorway embankment and related Killarney projects on their schedule if possible.
• The problem was again raised of the homeless people who are squatting in numbers on the motorway embankment. The police cannot relocate homeless people unless they have alternative accommodation available for them. The Councillor noted that some of the municipal homeless shelters are being closed due to budget problems, even though more homeless people are moving into Johannesburg every day. There is not much support here from the government.
• It was also noted that the long-term squatter on the corner of Oxford Road outside the offices of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, has now attracted some companions. This pavement is used by many children walking to Saxonwold Primary School, who now are walking in the street in the rush-hour traffic to go around these shelters.
• It was noted that the vacant Riviera stand in Oxford Road is again being occupied illegally by homeless people. Floh has spoken to the owner’s agent, and the owner is apparently poised to take action. The municipal authority has also done an inspection and has determined that there are environmental hazards here, which need to be addressed. We need to monitor this closely until the problem is resolved.
• Illegal hawkers, and drinking on pavements-: The Killarney Mall has positioned extra security guards on the pavements around Killarney Avenue. The municipality has been alerted to the problem, and Theodora and Coleman of CoJ have undertaken to follow this up. Cllr Huggett will also raise this with the CoJ regional director. This will probably be easier to manage if we can find a way to put more security cameras in 1^st Street and in other affected areas.
• Community Street patrols-: Ismail has developed some good momentum with these community patrols. We thank Ismail for these efforts. The patrols usually have security officers accompanying them, they find that the street drinkers are normally friendly, and the walks are generally pleasant and companionable. As the weather warms up, this activity will become more and more attractive. Nature abhors a vacuum, so if the residents abandon the streets after dark, other people will take the opportunity to occupy the space.
• The community patrols have also developed a list of the streetlights which are not working. This information will be sent to the City Power office, and copied to the ward councillor.
• NKRA Gardens project-: This project is aimed initially at growing food in the park. It was inspired by Riviera Villas, who have created a veggie-plot on their pavement land. A meeting has been held in the park, a spot has been chosen for an initial bed of veggies, and our park gardener Nolicent has already broken the ground along this area. It has been determined that we should purchase some compost to get the soil off to a good start, but in future we will be able to use our internally-generated compost to further boost the soil. The meeting resolved to purchase two cubic meters of compost (one truckload), to be delivered ASAP, at a total cost of R1,485.
• We continue to emphasise the on-going risks of criminal activities on the pavements, including cell-phone snatching and pickpockets. As the weather warms up, there will be more people out on the streets, and this may attract more robbers. People waiting outside for an Uber are particularly at risk.
• Killarney Mall refurbishment progress-: The Mall’s architects and consultants are still trying to design a taxi solution that will meet the conflicting requirements of all stakeholders. They have mediators in contact with the taxi associations, and they are trying to minimise the impact of the illegal taxi rank while we get to the end state. The Mall have placed extra security guards on the pavements, including on weekends, and these guards are monitoring the hawkers and are reporting suspicious behaviour to the SAPS for action. The Mall also got their cleaning service provider to do a pressure-wash clean-up on the pavements around the taxi area.

• NEW ISSUES
• Charles has sent a letter to the Pick ‘n Pay head office, explaining our unhappiness with the state of our local store. There has been no formal reply yet, but telephonically they have promised to attend to this. There are lots of excellent supermarkets in Rosebank, which is not very far away.
• Floh has spoken with the office manager of the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library. They intend to start construction work this year, but the project will not be finished until late 2025, maybe even 2026. Floh has discovered that a large underground parking area is now planned, which will take some pressure off the surrounding streets.

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The meeting was closed at 17:42, with thanks to all who participated.

Our next meeting will be held virtually on

WEDNESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2024 AT 18H30

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PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS

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

JMPD call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342

JMPD Control Room – 011 758 9620

JMPD number to report Homeless People camping in the vicinity – 011 490 1538

JMPD number to report Illegal Dumping – 011 490 1684

JMPD number to report Noise Pollution – 011 718 9684

JMPD number to report Illegal Advertising – 011 490 1547

JMPD number to report Illegal Trading – 011 490 1744

JMPD number to report other By-Law issues – 011 490 1684