MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 16th AUGUST 2017

MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING OF THE
NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION
HELD AT THE MALL MANAGEMENT OFFICES (1ST FLOOR OFFICE TOWER)
ON WEDNESDAY 16 AUGUST 2017 AT 17H00

PRESENT: Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Charles Whyte (Beverley Heights); Mike Kalk (Brenthurst Court); Jaco Botha (Brenthurst Court); Julie Wilson (Killarney Hills); Jaco le Roux (Chartwell); Ruth Kuper (Gleneagles); Tim Davies (Chartwell); Dean Dada (RCS Security); Captain Moonsamy (SAPS); Paulo Joaquim (Sevenoaks); Amora Visser (Killarney Park); Estelle Jacobs (Killarney Park); Harry Rutenberg (Sevenoaks); Fay Sher (Whitehall Court); Trish Terry (Gleneagles).

1. WELCOME
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

2. APOLOGIES
Elena Joaquim (St Johns Wood); Eleanor Huggett (Ward Councillor); Colin Froneman (Chartwell); Dave Jones (Chartwell); Viviennen Cobbett (Biarritz); Margaret Urban (Hanover Gate); Dalien Rutenberg (Glenhof Gardens).

3. DISCUSSION OF TIME CONSTRAINT
• We will strive to keep the discussions short and relevant, so as to finish by 6pm.

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
• Captain Moonsamy apologised for missing a few meetings, as he has been temporarily assigned to other duties. However things are now back to normal. He presented the crime statistics; as follows: 1 theft of motor vehicle; 1 attempted theft of motor vehicle; 1 car-jacking; 2 frauds; 3 malicious damage to property; 8 shop-lifting.
• The members are again reminded that you are most vulnerable in your driveway, as well as at traffic lights or in heavy slow traffic. Please always drive with your windows closed, and be very careful about opening your windows at traffic lights or for beggars etc. Robbers are now using pool acid as a weapon, as guns are getting hard to obtain and hard to conceal from police patrols and road-blocks.
• Cars are frequently stolen in the street outside the Mall. Car thieves know they have at least 15 minutes once you walk toward the Mall, and they can steal a car much faster than that. Please park inside at the Mall – parking is free on the roof for two hours.
• The police were again asked to remove beggars from intersections, to the extent that the law permits.
• Urban decay is always present to some extent, and we need to be constantly on our guard to avoid it growing out of control.
• The new JMPD commander arranged a drug-sting operation, which resulted in an arrest and confiscation of drugs. However we need these operations to happen frequently, until the criminals decide it’s no longer profitable to commit their crimes in Killarney.
• The JMPD is in the process of hiring and training 1500 new officers, who will largely be assigned to by-law enforcement duties. Hawkers, car washers and all forms of by-law contraventions will be addressed as often as resources permit.
• Drinking alcohol on roads and pavements is not illegal, and nor is loitering, provided the drinkers and loiterers are not breaking any other laws at the same time.
• An Inner Josi Safety and Security Forum has been created, to promote communication between the SAPS, the JMPD and all the security companies in Johannesburg. Killarney’s security companies are all urged to join, if they haven’t already done so.
• It was proposed to invite the Mayor of Johannesburg to a community meeting, so that members of the community can express their frustration in person. Wayne will communicate this invitation to Clr Huggett.
• As the weather warms up, some residents will start leaving upstairs windows and balcony doors open at night. This once again will attract the cat burglars, who are remarkably athletic and who can access upper floor windows with ease. Please consider putting burglar bars and gates on all your upstairs windows and balconies, if you haven’t already done so.
• The car washers are now taking water from a fire hydrant at the car wash. Captain Moonsamy advised that members can remove buckets from storm drains, and dump them in dustbins.
• It was clarified that buildings are allowed to put up “No Car Washing” signs on their own walls, but not on trees or street poles etc.

6. FEEDBACK FROM COUNCILLORS
• The councillor has apologised for non-attendance, as she is at a constituency meeting which was carried over from last week due to the public holiday.
• There is no further feedback yet on the municipal process to compel Martindale Mews to rectify the illegal structures they built in their driveway.
• JRA is busy with a project to replace all missing manhole covers with non-recyclable lids. Killarney is supposed to be included in this project, but the project is starting in the inner city. The meeting agreed that, if it takes too long to reach our pavements, we should look at buying and fitting these manhole covers ourselves, at our own expense. Members who were not at the meeting will be asked for their opinions on this proposal.
• We are looking for prices for the plastic covers, and for quotes from a handyman to fit them to the different sizes of each manhole.

7. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
• The 2017 October Community Day Picnic in the park will be held on Saturday 28 October. RCS Security, the Killarney Mall and Vered Estates have already come on board as sponsors and facilitators. We will arrange with some of the Mall restaurants to make deliveries of take-away foods to the park on the day. All vendors of crafts etc are welcome to attend, at no charge, provided they bring along their own furniture. No alcohol is permitted in the park.
• If you are also willing to help, please volunteer.
• It has been proposed that the NKRA should attempt some pavement repairs. There are problems with this idea in that some pavements are dug up repeatedly for water repairs, or for laying fibre-cables or power cables etc, so expensive repairs like tar might not give us value-for-money.
• As there are many damaged pavements and nowhere near enough money to fix them all, it was also proposed that the NKRA enter into arrangements with adjacent buildings on the basis that we will pay half of the cost of the repair if they pay the other half. This would need to be carefully managed, as we cannot spend members’ money on pavement repairs that are not essential, or which contributing members do not support.
• Some road and pavement issues were repaired by JRA in the past few days, including the subsiding fibre-optic trench across 4th Avenue. Many thanks to JRA.
• Road markings need to be repainted urgently – especially stop-streets and speed-humps.
• We have asked a handyman for quotes to repaint the street names on the kerb stones. He hasn’t responded yet.
• We have lodged requests for improving the existing speed-humps in 4th Ave outside the park, and for a traffic circle in the intersection of 7th Street and Anerley Road. JRA are checking the traffic surveys on file, and we have been promised a response by early September.
• It has been proposed to build some permanent exercise equipment in the park. This was originally proposed as part of the playground project, but we ran out of money. The idea is for a simple frame with a pull-up bar, and parallel handles for “dips”. We need to get input on what design will be most useful, and of how many residents would find such an apparatus useful please?
• City Parks will be asked to trim the big trees in the park, as there are many dead branches now which are a bit of a safety hazard in the high wind.
• If you find an election poster still up outside your building, you can take it down, but please keep it in storage in case somebody demands it back.
• Please report problems of potholes and pavements to the JRA at http://www.jra.org.za/find-and-fix-mobile-app, or call 011 375 5555.
• Please 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 new call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342. Please keep the reference numbers for follow-up.

8. FINANCE AND MEMBERSHIP
• We now have enough money to consider projects again. Please keep sending in your ideas and suggestions.
• 29 buildings are currently members of the NKRA. If your building would like to also become an NKRA member, please contact us.

9. GENERAL
• Please let us know if you are able to recommend any suppliers, so that we can build up our database for the benefit of all.

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

Our next meeting will be held on
WEDNESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2017 at 5pm

PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS

JMPD call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342.
SAPS patrol van – 071 675 6001
If you get no response, please call the Hillbrow Joint Operations Command Centre
on 011 488 6712, or call 10111.