NKRA Communique – June 2022

Hi everyone

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to be effectively over. The government has lifted the National State of Disaster, and although Covid-19 will always be active in South Africa, for now it seems to be manageable. Sadly over 100,000 South Africans did not make it through the pandemic, including several residents of Killarney and Riviera.

There have been suggestions for the NKRA to resume holding physical meetings. When we return to holding physical meetings we will need to have a new venue, because our relationship with the Mall is now quite strained, as a result of the rising pressure on them to build a taxi facility on their premises. If any building has a suitable venue and is willing to make it available to us for one evening per month, please do let us know. If not, we will need to seek a venue at an office building or temple etc, where we will probably need to pay some form of rental.

Alternately most of us have participated in virtual meetings during the pandemic, for all kinds of reasons including doing business, undergoing training courses, attending funerals, holding AGM’s etc, so many people are now quite familiar with virtual meetings. Virtual meetings have their drawbacks but they are very convenient, particularly during the remaining months of cold weather, and they remove the need for facilities, parking etc. We did also find that when we held virtual annual general meetings, they were attended by some people who were not usually able to attend physical meetings for various reasons. Please would you also share your views on holding virtual NKRA meetings over the internet?

We continue to ask all buildings please to help by cleaning up litter and weeds on pavements or in gutters, including leaves, as this adds a lot of value to the suburb. When litter is allowed to accumulate, including mounds of “wild” leaves, it seems to encourage people to drop their own litter onto the pile as well, rather than to carry it to a rubbish bin. This is particularly problematic on “orphan” pavements, which do not directly border a specific building. We have a few of these, especially along the bridges and the motorway embankments. The pavement bordering the motorway embankment all along 7^th Street and Newton Avenue is a particular challenge.

The various excavations on the pavements have not yet been reinstated. We have heard that City Power has not actually finished laying the cables in certain streets, and that the reinstatement of the pavements will only be done once all other work has been completed. We continue to lobby the ward councilor to assist with getting this matter finalized.

There is still a massive safety problem at the busy intersection of Oxford Road and Riviera Road. A huge excavation was required to repair a major burst pipe, but this road has never been properly reinstated. The soil is now compacting, and in addition some of the soil is being lost due to wind and running water. As a result, the hole has now become deep enough to be dangerous, so please approach that intersection with caution, particularly in heavy traffic. We have reported this issue to the ward councillor, and she has reported it to the Johannesburg Roads Agency, but extra pressure always helps. Please could residents therefore help us here by continually reporting this issue to the municipality via the new email address of joburgconnect@joburg.org.za

It might also help to report this issue using one of two digital channels:

• Download the Pothole Patrol App – from the IOS app store or Google Play;
• WhatsApp “Hi” to 084 -POTHOLE (084 768 4653) and follow the prompts.

The Pothole Patrol will only repair problems in high-traffic streets, but Riviera Road is undoubtedly a high-traffic street, and the Pothole Patrol has repaired lesser holes in Riviera Road already. Perhaps they will intervene in this case too if enough people report this huge hole.

Johannesburg City Power has finally admitted that load shedding is causing serious damage to the regional power grid. The deterioration of the aging infrastructure increases every time the grid is switched off, and some of the older substations are occasionally unable to switch back on again at all after a power outage. Residents are therefore being asked to switch off heavy appliances like geysers and heaters while the power is off, so that these appliances are not all poised to simultaneously put load on the grid again when the power comes back on. Added to this problem are many instances of stolen cables, because cable theft increases when the power is off and the cables are “safe”.

In order to help address South Africa’s long-lasting electricity crisis, President Ramaphosa has now announced a plan to allow Eskom to buy power from private producers. He has urged businesses and individual households to install rooftop solar panels where possible, to utilise this solar power in place of grid power as much as possible, and to sell any surplus power that we might have into the grid for other customers to use. Eskom is going to pay a prescribed “feed-in tariff” for this power, and everyone who has installed solar panels will be able to sell their surplus power to Eskom at these prices. I know that some buildings have already installed solar panels and batteries. Please would those buildings share their experiences, and their recommendations?

This all sounds like a really splendid plan, except that this welcome news closely follows a very different story a few weeks ago, in which Eskom was proposing to significantly increase the tariffs charged to customers who use less electricity, as well as to impose a huge penalty on anybody who installs solar panels. Let’s hope somebody over there still knows what is actually going on.

PikiTup has placed recycling bins on our pavement in Killarney Avenue, outside Mentone Court and opposite to the Mall. These huge plastic bins are very unattractive, and they seem to attract extra littering and urinating too. Although we strongly support recycling, these bins are in the wrong place here, and we have asked the ward councillor to work with PikiTup to find a better location for these bins if possible.

Thus far, 39 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera have paid the 2022 membership subscription to the NKRA – this is about 71% of the total. Many thanks indeed to these buildings for your on-going support. The current list of the members for 2022 is as follows:

1. Berkeley Square
2. Beverley Heights
3. Biarritz
4. Brenthurst Court
5. Bretton Woods
6. Canterbury Close
7. Chartwell
8. Chelston Hall
9. Christina Court
10. Cranwell Hall
11. Daventry Court
12. Devon Place
13. Dumbarton Oaks
14. Earls Court
15. Gleneagles
16. Glenhof Gardens
17. Greenhills
18. Hampshire Mews
19. Hyde Court
20. Interlaken
21. Killarney Court & Gardens
22. Killarney Hills
23. Killarney Park
24. Killarney Village
25. Kingsborough
26. Knightsbridge
27. La Camargue
28. Mentone Court
29. Monviso
30. Park Avenue
31. Portofino
32. Rapallo
33. Riviera Mansions
34. Riviera Villas
35. Santa Margherita
36. Sevenoaks
37. Splice Riviera
38. The Rivieras
39. Whitehall Court

If your building does make a membership contribution, please ask your managing agent to include your reference number as well, so as to facilitate the allocation of the payment on our side.

Please would NKRA members give us feedback on the various issues described above, and especially on the proposed resumption of physical or internet meetings? We also welcome all suggestions from all residents, on all issues.

Best wishes to all, keep well, and keep safe.

Wayne Ford