NKRA Communique – October 2023

Hi everyone

We held our October NKRA public meeting via the internet on Wednesday 18 October 2023. The issues arising from that meeting are included in this newsletter. Our final public meeting of 2023 will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 15 November 2023. All owners and residents of Killarney and Riviera are welcome to join in. An agenda with a meeting link will be circulated closer to that date.

James Delaney has been busy again at The Wilds. He and his associates have now made many of the pathways safe for wheelchairs, to allow more people to access this amazing urban wilderness. Many thanks to James and friends for this massively valuable service!

The 7^th Street car-park area is an on-going source of concern regarding hawkers, alcohol selling, littering and illegal dumping, as well as providing illegal access onto the motorway embankment. It was previously suggested that the NKRA should buy a security camera, to be added onto the existing camera system at Castlerosse, which is monitored by RCS Security. This will cost about R3,300. We included this proposal in the August and September newsletters, and we discussed it at the September meeting, and nobody has objected to the proposal. The representative from Castlerosse was present at the October meeting, and he supported the project. It was therefore resolved to proceed with this project ASAP.

Like the hawkers etc, the on-going issue of homeless people camping on the embankments and pavements is a by-law enforcement issue, and only JMPD can address it. This problem has been discussed with our new SAPS acting sector manager, Warrant Officer Theledi, and she has undertaken to press JMPD to address this. The Hillbrow CPF is also helping to get JMPD to intensify their efforts in Killarney. The management of the Killarney Country Club are aware of the homeless people camping on their pavements, and they are also reporting the squatters regularly.

The meeting noted that the amount of hawking and loitering around Killarney Avenue is getting worse. This is once again a JMPD responsibility, and it has also been reported to the SAPS acting sector manager for action.

The JMPD standard excuse is that they are required to cover the entire city with limited resources. It was noted that we pay comparatively high municipal rates, and that our service delivery is unacceptably poor. However the JMPD does not allocate their available resources based on how much rates and taxes an area pays, but rather on the “perceived seriousness” of the law enforcement problems in that area – which they seem to calculate based on how many complaints are received and logged. It is therefore very important that our residents call JMPD often to report issues. Please always ask for a reference number when you log a complaint, because a complaint without a reference number has not actually been logged. The various JMPD contact numbers are included at the bottom of these minutes.

In addition to everything else, the 7^th Street car-park area and surrounding pavements also have a problem with constant and repeated littering. It was previously suggested to hire a street cleaner for the car park area and the adjacent pavement. The RCS Security company has a subsidiary company which does cleaning and gardening as well. They have quoted us a price of R380 per day. This rate covers the wages of the cleaner, as well as the admin cost, the equipment and clothing required, and the necessary supervision. The cleaner will also interface with the RCS security staff at Castlerosse, and will act as an extra pair of eyes at that problematic location. The proposal was to hire the cleaner for two days per week, for four weeks, at a cost of R3,040. We will then reassess how much value this is adding, and if we decide to continue, we will need to find a sponsor.

The meeting resolved to proceed with this project. It was argued that the quoted daily rate is quite high, and so it was further agreed that RCS will be asked if possible to reduce the quoted rate. It was also agreed that we do not want to hire an employee directly, and that the associated admin effort and risk does make it worthwhile to pay extra to an outsourced service provider instead.

It was noted that our security camera at Daventry Court in 1^st Street has been damaged, and it is not fixable. It was agreed to discuss with the service provider the possibility of getting a cheaper and simpler camera to replace it, which will be less expensive but will also have less functionality. Since the loitering problem in this area has largely been resolved, a cheaper camera for basic monitoring purposes might be a good idea. Daventry Court has also installed new security lights on their 1^st Street pavement to improve security still further.

We will renew the quest to have City Parks remove the huge tree stump of the fallen tree at the corner of Anerley Road and 7^th Street. This stump has been a problem for over a year now.

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, as this does seem to speed up the response a bit. You can also log municipal problems on MySmartCity, at https://mysmart.city, or you can download their App from the website.

We need to continually warn people about the risk of cell-phone snatching. Although we stress this in every newsletter, we still see many people outside on the pavements, with cell-phone in hand – in many cases probably waiting for an Uber. These are the primary target for the cell-phone snatchers, and Killarney is becoming a target-area of choice. It was noted that the people waiting outside the Click’s entrance to Killarney Mall are a particular target. We have suggested to the Mall management to create a pick-up-and-drop-off area for Ubers, overseen by some form of extra security.

The project to sue the municipality to enforce the by-laws, has bogged down because the lawyers need to first have a complainant who has the financial means to pay the legal costs of the municipality if we lose the case. The NKRA does not have the assets or the revenue stream to be able to do this, so unless we can find an organization willing to undertake the risk, this project is frozen. We are busy contacting other ratepayer associations in the area to propose a joint effort.

We have received very little response to our request for information about borehole water. We presume this means that very few buildings have boreholes. We did learn that testing borehole water for safety and quality apparently costs about R3,000 per test. In addition it seems that you need to have a municipal permit from the Council, in terms of Section 14(1) of the COJ’s Land Use Scheme (2018), before you can drill a borehole. However we are still pursuing the precise details. The specific feedback we have obtained so far is as follows:

• Glenhof Gardens in North Road, Riviera, reported that they filter their borehole water, but it seems to be substantially clean and safe. They don’t use it for drinking, but only for watering the gardens and topping up the pool, etc.
• Daventry Court in Riviera Road reported that their operative borehole produces about 1,440 litres per hour, from a depth of about 40m. They also use it only for the garden, washing cars etc, and in emergencies it can be used for flushing toilets. They advise residents to boil the water if it is needed for drinking purposes.
• Whitehall Court in 4th Street reported that their borehole water occasionally has traces of e-coli bacteria, and that the water needs to be boiled before drinking it.
• St John’s Wood in 2nd Street is busy establishing a new borehole. It is not quite finished, so we are waiting in anticipation for the final details.

We are continuing with our project to gather reliable feedback from our various buildings on the quality of the borehole water available in Killarney-Riviera. In particular we need to know about current costs of drilling, the municipal permit process and costs, and the useability of the water that is available in the area. We would also like to build up a list of recommended service providers. It was again noted that it will probably be cheaper and safer in most cases, to provide residents with an emergency water supply by installing large Jojo water tanks and keeping them topped up with clean municipal tap water.

Killarney Mall are again hosting the annual Houghton Bonsai and Succulent Show, which will take place from 10-12 November. In addition to displays, there will be vendors selling bonsai, succulents and orchids. There will also be workshops to assist new enthusiasts. Find out more at: www.bonsaiandsucculentshow.com 

Regarding the illegal taxi rank in 1st Street, the Mall planners and directors have not yet made any decisions on their refurbishment project. Proposals have been offered by the architects involved in this project, but concerns have been raised by the Mall owners on various aspects thereof. The architects are therefore busy reviewing their proposals in order to address all these concerns. This is very frustrating for all parties, but it’s better to do it correctly the first time. There is still no date for finalisation.

The Westville Ratepayers Association (WRA) in Durban has been undertaking a rates boycott against the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, over a dispute concerning the recent tariff increases. After the WRA declared a dispute, the members of the Association began paying their rates into a trust account instead. The municipality started cutting off their services for non-payment, so the WRA approached the court for an interdict. The Durban High Court has dismissed the Ratepayers’ application, with costs. This means that the residents who were participating in the rates boycott must still pay for all services, including penalties, interest, and reconnection fees. This confirms that residents cannot take the law into their own hands and withhold payments that are lawfully due to the municipality.

The Joburg Roads Agency is now issuing warning notices to residents who have constructed road closures or boom gates which do not comply with the municipality’s security and access-restriction policy. The JRA has identified about 215 of these unlawful structures, of which around 115 are in our own Region E. If any residents fail to properly remove these structures after receiving the warning notices, the structures will be removed by the municipality and the residents in question will be billed for the cost of the removal.

So far 38 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera have paid their NKRA membership subscriptions for the year – this is about 69% of the total. The current list of the members for 2023 so far is as follows:

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

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

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. In particular, these are currently our primary action points:

• Managing the squatter problem in Killarney;
• Finding a sponsor for a street cleaner for the 7^th Street car-park area and pavement;
• Continually warning people about the risk of cell-phone snatching;
• Getting reliable feedback on the borehole water in Killarney-Riviera.

Our final virtual meeting of 2023 will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 15 November 2023.

Greetings to all, keep well, and keep safe. J

Wayne Ford

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