NKRA Communique – April 2023

Hi everyone

We held our April public meeting over the internet at 18h30 on Wednesday 19 April, despite the load shedding. The various issues arising from the virtual meeting are included in this newsletter. Our next virtual public meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 24 May 2023. All owners and residents of Killarney and Riviera are welcome to participate. An agenda with a meeting link will be circulated closer to the meeting date.

At the end of April the NKRA patched and made safer a number of damaged pavements, as per the agreed plan. We addressed the pavements that were dug up but never repaired in 2^nd Ave, in 1^st Street, in 3^rd Street, and in 8^th Street corner Newtown Road. This 8^th Street corner was a difficult job, where a hole was dug by Joburg Water in the road which also destroyed a section of the narrow pavement in the process. We managed to rebuild the pavement, but we had to resurface the road as well to stop the pavement washing away and collapsing again.

The primary objective of our three-day project was to make these damaged pavements a bit safer for pedestrians and for people in wheelchairs, as well as for families with children in prams. The repairs have also helped a bit to improve the aesthetic appearance of the pavements, and this will get better over time as the tar dries out and the hard black colour fades to grey. Hopefully the municipality does not dig them up again any time soon.

By chance the Discovery Pothole Patrol was active in Killarney at the same time, and we had some discussions with their people on site. They explained their processes, and their work schedule in Killarney. They were only repairing potholes in the street, not pavements or major excavations.

The Discovery Pothole Patrol people explained that they were scheduled to fix all the dangerous excavation holes in 7^th Street and Newtown Road, so we went around with them on a site-visit to identify exactly which holes they would address, in order to avoid any overlap. On inspection the Discovery team noted that the four main holes from municipal repair work were too deep to be fixed with the technology which they were carrying. We were using a JRA-approved contractor to fix the pavements, and he was confident that he could deal with these deep holes using his hot-mix asphalt and his large diesel compactor. We therefore spontaneously agreed to extend our project to patch the four most dangerous holes in 7^th Street and Newtown Road as well, for the sake of protecting the health and safety of motorists while we wait for the JRA to do their job properly. This cost us an extra R21,000, which was actually quite cheap because he only charged us for the extra material purchased. The work was done using only asphalt so as to not damage the road itself, but these repairs should last quite a while. Hopefully the JRA will do proper road repairs at some point as well. We will continue to pressure the ward councillor for the JRA to also do proper repairs on the dangerous hole outside the Mall in Riviera Road, and outside the PPS offices in Anerley Road and Federation Road.

We also undertook a smaller clean-up exercise in the park in 4^th Street. The main problem here is that branches fall all the time from the mature jacaranda trees, and the park gardener piles them near the 2^nd Avenue gate to be taken away as fire-wood, or to be collected by the City Parks cleaners. Other garden refuse also accumulates on that pile, and it had become an eyesore. For some unknown reason, the City Parks cleaners don’t remove that debris. A small service provider with a truck was hired to remove all this accumulated debris, as a cost of R1,850. This also included removing some other rubbish which had accumulated behind the ablution block over the years.

A community-minded resident of the Killarney Park building arranged on her own initiative and at her own expense for a person to clean out the various dustbins in the park. This is necessary with all public dustbins from time to time, because the City Parks cleaners regularly remove “hard litter” such as papers and bottles, but they are reluctant to remove the rotting gunk of old bread and chicken bones etc, which accumulates as a black rotting mass at the bottom of every dustbin. Many thanks indeed to Debbie for this valuable contribution!

As was resolved at the April meeting, a clean-up exercise was undertaken on the overgrown pavement in 7^th Street bordering the motorway, which was so blocked that pedestrians had to walk in the street. After waiting many months for the municipality to clean this pavement, we hired a service provider to clear the garbage, major weeds and overgrowing trees. They removed two overflowing skips of debris from this location – see the before-and-after photos below. The pavement is still far from immaculate, but it is now much cleaner than before, and very much safer for pedestrians to walk on. Now that we have broken the back of this mess, we hope that the municipality will maintain that pavement properly going forward.

There are various issues of failing infrastructure around our area. Among other things, the street lights in Riviera Road and elsewhere are not working properly at present, even when we do not have load-shedding. The ablution block at the park also requires serious maintenance. City Parks are saying that the required repairs will cost around R135,000 and there is no timeline yet for this repair. While we wait for service delivery from the municipality, we continue to ask all buildings please to help us by cleaning up litter and weeds on your adjacent pavements and gutters. Litter and weeds create a general impression of neglect, especially among potential new investors.

For all municipal service delivery issues, including potholes, pavements, Pikitup, electricity and water issues, you can contact the municipal Call Centre on 0860 562 874 to have your concerns forwarded to the relevant operational departments. Please would everybody keep on reporting these issues, and always ask them for a reference number. Please try to include photographs of the problem where you can, because the municipality seems to respond slightly faster when we include photos to support our complaints. You can also log municipal problems on MySmartCity, at https://mysmart.city, or download their App from the website.

At the April NKRA meeting it was proposed to launch a lawsuit against the municipality to compel them to enforce their various by-laws. Advocate Khan of Dukes Court offered to lead this process pro bono on behalf of the community, and we greatly appreciate this very valuable offer. However we also need an attorney to volunteer to undertake the attorney-level activities that will be required in this process. If there are any attorneys in Killarney who are willing to assist Advocate Khan and the community with this project, please do let us know.

The SAPS and the JMPD jointly raided Killarney recently, as part of their 100 Days of active crime prevention project. Hawkers were chased away, but they soon returned. Some delivery scooters were impounded, apparently for various outstanding traffic offences. The SAPS have promised to keep up the pressure on the hawkers.

The SAPS cannot prosecute drug sellers unless they catch them in possession of illegal substances. The drug sellers know this, and so they hide their products somewhere in their vicinity. If we can identify their hiding places then the police will be better able to act against these criminals. It was proposed to improve our camera coverage in the problem area, using multiple small fixed cameras rather than a mobile camera which requires a full-time operator. We will liaise with the trustees at Dukes Court and at Mentone Court to advance this suggestion, as well as with their security companies. Vision Tactical Security are using licence-recognition cameras and software. We have researched this before for Killarney, but it was very expensive. Hopefully Vision Tactical Security can bring this crime-fighting technology to Killarney at an affordable price.

Our SAPS community safety liaison officer, Sergeant Mdlolo, has been promoted to Warrant Officer. We congratulate her on this promotion. Warrant Officer Mdlolo is continuing to request law enforcement in our area, with particular attention to the illegal activities around the illegal taxi rank in 1^st Street, and the various illegal activities which have spread beyond that immediate vicinity. Once again, residents are strongly reminded not to display cell-phones or other valuables on the pavements, because criminals are constantly watching for opportunities to snatch small but valuable possessions. We continue to make our case at the Community Policing Forum for more police attention on these problems as well.

The latest feedback from the owners of the Killarney Mall is that their project to revitalise the Mall is still in the research and planning stage. They have retained a team of experts in various fields to do this research, and it will apparently take a few more months before the draft plans are ready. The focus of this project is very wide, and among other things it will include replanning the traffic flows inside the Mall and the parking arrangements, which will obviously be very expensive to change. They have assured us that we will be consulted when the draft plans are available. Meanwhile, they are again asking us to make suggestions about new shops or services that we would like to have, so that they can incorporate our input into their research.

In the meanwhile, the Mall is continuing to provide a dedicated street cleaner to help manage the impact of the illegal taxi rank, and they have assured me that they will be sponsoring some permanent outdoor exercise equipment in the park. Once they have specific plans, City Parks will need to approve the proposal, and the community will be asked to give input on this as well.

The two buildings in Killarney which are owned by Dr Martin were auctioned in April. Large bids were received for both buildings, but the owner has not accepted any of them. On the bright side, the auction has established a valuation, and the agent is continuing to seek buyers. We now wait to see what happens. If you perhaps have contacts with any companies which own or develop residential buildings, please do let us know.

So far 31 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera have paid their NKRA membership subscriptions for the year ahead – this is about 56% of the total. The current list of the members for 2023 so far is as follows:

• Berkeley Square
• Beverley Heights
• Biarritz
• Bretton Woods
• Canterbury Close
• Castlerosse
• Chelston Hall
• Christina Court
• Devon Place
• Dumbarton Oaks
• Earls Court
• Glenhof Gardens
• Greenhills
• Hampshire Mews
• Hyde Court
• Interlaken
• Killarney Court & Gardens
• Killarney Hills
• Killarney Village
• Killarney Wilds
• Kingsborough
• Knightsbridge
• Mentone Court
• Monviso
• Park Avenue
• Portofino
• Rapallo
• Riviera Mansions
• Riviera Villas
• Sevenoaks
• The Rivieras

Many thanks indeed to all these buildings for your on-going support. Thank you also to the various people who make personal donations as well.

Please would the NKRA members provide feedback on the various issues described above? We are happy to receive photos of any interesting things that might be happening around our area, which we might include in future newsletters. We also welcome all suggestions from all residents, on all issues.

Our next virtual meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 24 May 2023.

Greetings to all, keep well, and keep safe.

Wayne Ford