The NKRA is grateful for the support provided in the 4th Street park by our park sponsors RUSSELL FISHER PROPERTIES and VISION TACTICAL SECURITY and the KILLARNEY MALL, and for the street cleaning services provided by RCS SECURITY SERVICES.

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NKRA Communique – April 2021

Hi everyone

The Covid-19 pandemic rages on, and although it seemed that our country was slowly getting to grips with it, the government is now speaking of a 3rd Wave. To facilitate the vaccination process, the government has introduced an Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) Self Registration Portal, where citizens can register to be vaccinated. Medical workers are being vaccinated first, but now all citizens aged 60 years and above can also register for vaccination. The website is at http://vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za/. You can get more information on this online Self Registration process at https://sacoronavirus.co.za/evds/tscs/ and at evds.hcwselfregistration@health.gov.za. Apparently the vaccinations are free of charge, but if you have medical aid support then the cost will be recovered from your medical aid fund.

In the meanwhile, as we wait for the vaccinations to roll out, please all continue to observe social distancing, please wear your masks and sanitise your hands, and please continue to be very careful. This is one of those cases where Prevention really is better than Cure.

The next round of municipal elections will be held on 27 October 2021. If you have moved house since the previous elections, you should check that you are properly registered. You can do this online, at the website https://www.elections.org.za/pw/Voter/My-ID-Information-Details.

In a previous communique we proposed the idea of putting concrete tables in the park, to facilitate people working in the park, or perhaps eating meals. Although many people supported the idea, some people were concerned that these tables might encourage problematic loitering, and others were concerned about keeping the tables clean of leaves and blossoms and bird droppings – especially if they are to be used for eating meals. The park security guard can probably manage any problematic loiterers. If the tables are not positioned directly underneath trees then they should stay fairly clean – and the park gardener can always help from time to time if there is an occasional bird problem. However because consensus was lacking, we should discuss this further before making a decision.

The municipality never got around to repairing the municipal palisade “security fence” at the 7th Street circle, which was vandalised months ago. The NKRA has now fixed this fence ourselves, using a contractor called Elite Renovations. The cost of this repair was R6,470. The contractor did also warn me that this concrete fence is easily broken, so would the residents in that vicinity please keep an eye on it – and preferably point a security camera in that direction too if possible?

This contractor was very efficient, and very capable. I therefore also asked them to provide an additional quote to repair the steel palisade fence at the circle in 4th Avenue, which was seriously impacted by a car accident a few months ago. They have quoted us R4,427.50 to replace the damaged pillar and the one section of palisades that are buckled, and to straighten the other affected sections as needed. Does any member object to us fixing this very visible fence at this busy intersection please?

We had an issue recently where a large number of bags of rubbish were stacked on the pavement at the corner of 3rd Street and 4th Avenue. This may well have been done by the PikiTup street sweepers, who normally leave all the bags of rubbish they have gathered on the pavement for a truck which comes around many days later. We do also sometimes have cases where people discard cardboard boxes, wood, old furniture etc by leaving it on the pavements. In addition, some of these pavement bins fill up rapidly due to domestic workers who carry kitchen refuse with them when they go home, and they drop it into (or nearby to) a pavement bin instead of using their building’s own bins. We know this is the case, because the nature of the litter is clearly household rubbish rather than the type of stuff that would need to be discarded by a pedestrian (such as cereal boxes, detergent bottles and containers, tea-bags, old feather-dusters etc). Please would all buildings help us to avoid such dumping, as the bins overflow rapidly on Fridays in particular, and then rubbish accumulates on the ground over the weekend?

The Johannesburg Roads Agency has done a lot of fixing of roads in Killarney recently. Unfortunately they have not yet remedied the fact that they accidentally tarred over the two water valves in the intersection of 4th Avenue and 3rd Street. These valves required manhole covers to make them safely accessible. Meanwhile, please could nearby residents continue to put stones in that huge hole to reduce the danger to cars and bicycles?

The areas where the road has already been repaired are as follows:

  1. 2nd Ave between Riviera Road and 1st Street
  2. Intersection of 4th Ave and Riviera Road
  3. Intersection of 2nd Ave and 3rd Street
  4. 4th Ave between 1st Street and 2nd Street (extensive)
  5. Intersection of 4th Ave and 2nd Street
  6. Intersection of 4th Ave and 3rd Street (extensive)
  7. 3rd Street outside Bretton Woods
  8. 4th Ave on the bridge
  9. Intersection of 4th Ave and 7th Street (extensive)
  10. Intersection of 3rd Ave and 7th Street
  11. Intersection of Newton Road and 9th Street
  12. Intersection of Newton Road and Jo Slovo Ave (extensive)

JRA has officially committed to fixing all the roads in Johannesburg by the end of June, but they have not yet done anything in 1st Street, 2nd Street, 2nd Avenue or 5th Street. Hopefully they are still in progress with all these issues. Once the JRA has finished with their planned work, the NKRA can then complete the job by fixing the remaining serious issues, including fixing any dangerously uneven areas on the high-traffic pavements.

We are not going to be able to give every single pavement in Killarney-Riviera a perfectly smooth flat surface, but rather we will need to focus (at least initially) on the high-traffic and high-risk areas, and level them to the point where they are safe to walk on, if not necessarily cosmetically perfect. For simplicity and cost, for this round of repairs we will focus only on pavement problems that can be fixed with asphalt, and we will leave the more complicated brick and paving-stone issues until the next round. Our list of pavements needing serious attention is currently as follows:

  1. Riviera Road outside Beverley Heights
  2. 1st Street outside Killarney Gardens
  3. 2nd Street outside Gleneagles
  4. 3rd Street outside Brenthurst Court
  5. 3rd Street outside Chartwell
  6. 9th Street opposite Knightsbridge
  7. 4th Avenue outside Cranwell Hall
  8. 4th Avenue outside the park gate
  9. 2nd Avenue outside Killarney Park
  10. 4th Avenue at the 7th Street circle
  11. 3rd Avenue outside Castlerosse

Please would you let us know of any other serious pavement issues which need urgent attention, so that we can include them in the repair project?

We have already approved R40,000 for this project, but we won’t know how much this list of repairs will cost until we get the quotes. Furthermore, if the municipality doesn’t fix all the roads that need fixing, we might need to patch a few extra spots ourselves as well.

The big water leak in 3rd Street at the intersection of Killarney Road has finally been repaired. However we will now wait to see how long it takes for the road to be re-surfaced.

If you notice any municipal service-delivery issues at all, please report these problems to the municipality on 011 375 5555, and wait for them to give you a reference number. You can also use the following online approaches

The SAPS Sector Patrol Car still exists, and we are working with the SAPS management and the Community Policing Forum to get that patrol car back online. Meanwhile the services of the police patrol cars can still be requested by calling SAPS Sergeant Mdlolo on 082 355 5646. Failing that, please call the 10111 SAPS emergency number.

In a previous communique we asked buildings to consider installing extra floodlights around your perimeters, to light up any potential crime spots. This deters the criminals in the first place, and it also helps the cameras to see what is happening if a crime does still take place. I did notice that several buildings have since made an effort to trim vegetation that overhangs the pavements. Thank you all for those efforts. We have also been asked to remind everyone that your security floodlights must be arranged so that the floodlights do not shine into the windows of the opposite buildings, or into the eyes of drivers on the road outside please.

In a previous communique we asked member buildings if they wish to continue with the street sweeper service around the area of the illegal taxi rank in 1st Street. This sweeper also sees what happens in that area while he is working, including potentially illegal transactions involving drugs and alcohol, and he communicates his observations to the security company. No member objected to the continuation of the street sweeper project, but some people did question the cost thereof. I have discussed this with the service provider, and we have agreed to modify the project slightly so as to reduce the charge to R5,000 per month (excl VAT). As a result, from 1 June the sweeper will start work a bit later in the morning, and they will thus work for fewer hours in total. The sweepers have been working for five days a week, Thursday to Monday, and this will continue, because these are considered to be the days when drugs are more likely to be sold, and the illegal drinking parties are more likely to take place. However we are ultimately still dependent on the support of the police – if they don’t respond to address the illegal activities, then the problem cannot be solved.

People who need a service provider would usually benefit from using somebody who has been recommended by a trusted source, rather than taking a chance on a random supplier who they found on the internet. We therefore continue to grow our list of Recommended Suppliers on our website, at http://www.nkra.org.za/recommended-suppliers/. If you have had very good service from any supplier, please would you let us know so that we can add them to our list?

PikiTup’s landfills are almost filled to capacity, so we really need to recycle everything we can. Our “official” municipal recycling project by PikiTup is still struggling, and so many of us continue to rely on the “trolley people” to perform this necessary service. These people do a valuable job, most of them are helpful and friendly, and they don’t ask for payment or handouts. We can all make a significant contribution to our city and to the environment simply by assisting our local “trolley people” to take our recyclable materials to the recyclers, and all that this would require from us is to separate the cardboard, plastic and metal out of our weekly garbage, and to put it out on Tuesday mornings in a separate bag or container so that the recyclers don’t have to rummage through our garbage to find it.

Thus far 30 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera have renewed their membership subscriptions to the NKRA – about 54% of the total. Many thanks indeed to all these buildings for your on-going support. We hope that some more buildings might still join up, but meanwhile, the list of the members for 2021 is as follows:

  1. Beverly Heights
  2. Brenthurst Court
  3. Bretton Woods
  4. Canterbury Close
  5. Chartwell
  6. Chelston Hall
  7. Christina Court
  8. Cranwell Hall
  9. Daventry Court
  10. Devon Place
  11. Dumbarton Oaks
  12. Gleneagles
  13. Glenhof Gardens
  14. Hampshire Mews
  15. Hatherley Hall
  16. Hyde Court
  17. Interlaken
  18. Killarney Court & Gardens
  19. Killarney Hills
  20. Killarney Park
  21. Killarney Village
  22. Kingsborough
  23. La Camargue
  24. Mentone Court
  25. Monviso
  26. Rapallo
  27. Riviera Mansions
  28. Santa Margherita
  29. Sevenoaks
  30. The Rivieras

Please would the NKRA members give us feedback on the suggested projects proposed above? If members don’t specifically object, then I will assume that you are happy to support all of these proposals.

We also welcome all suggestions from all other residents, on all issues.

Keep well, and keep safe.

Wayne Ford