NKRA Communique – September 2026

Hi everyone

The most recent NKRA monthly general meeting was held via internet on 16 September 2026. The key issues arising from that meeting are included in this newsletter. Our next NKRA monthly general meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 21 October 2026. All residents, owners and employees in Killarney and Riviera are welcome to attend. A formal agenda with a Microsoft Teams meeting link will be circulated in due course.

Pavement Repairs

Joburg Water installed a new water meter for Bretton Woods on the pavement in 4^th Avenue, but the new water meter also leaked. Joburg Water has finally repaired that leak, and the NKRA pavement repair team then restored the pavement. As often happens, Joburg Water thereafter returned to dig up the paving to do a bit more work. It is safe to walk there now, and the NKRA will continue to repair the paving as needed, to preserve pedestrian safety.

After substantial delays, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation has resumed implementing the repairs to our various damaged asphalt pavements. They have done some of the asphalt resurfacing work already, including in 2^nd Avenue and in 4^th Avenue. We thank them for this valuable contribution, and we look forward to the resurfacing being finished.

Graffiti restoration

There are a lot of Telkom pavement boxes on our pavements which have been graffitied, and this is detracting from the appearance of the area. These boxes all need to be cleaned up and repainted. A number of streetlight poles have been spray-painted by the vandals as well, as have the concrete bollards on the 4^th Avenue pavement at Bretton Woods, and some other poles and dustbins. The NKRA has resolved to do this remediation work ourselves, rather than hiring a service-provider. It was agreed to clean all the Telkom boxes and rust-treat them, and then to paint them with undercoat and a hard-wearing outdoor green paint. There is the risk that the vandals will re-offend, but it was agreed to accept this risk and to keep some spare paint on hand to paint over any future graffiti, if needed.

We cannot accurately estimate the final cost, because we don’t yet know how much time and labour and material will be needed to implement this project. Each Telkom box has its own issues, and will require slightly different levels of work, and the affected bins and poles etc all require different amounts of work as well. It was therefore resolved to allocate R5,000 for a pilot project to clean up the graffiti, commencing at once. We will learn from experience as we go, and if it becomes apparent that the total cost will be higher than R5,000, we will vote again to allocate further resources. Work has already begun on the Telkom boxes and the street-sign poles, and this project will continue for quite a few weeks.

Fence repair along Newtown Avenue

There is a long-standing gap in the Newtown Avenue pavement fence in the corner of the 7^th Steet carpark, where some concrete pales have been broken out. It has been agreed with City Parks to install a gate in this hole, to allow controlled access to the embankment for maintenance work. The gate installation will utilise an old City Parks gate, which was removed from the 4^th Street park when an art-gate was installed in its place. The gate will require new gate posts to be manufactured, and post holes will need to be dug for concrete foundations for the gate posts. The amount of welding will be substantial, and the welders will also need a generator. The meeting resolved to allocate R5,000 to install this gate.

Municipal Repairs

The municipal asphalt plant is working again. Before the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) can do reinstatements, they must wait for Joburg Water and Egoli Gas etc to sign off on the underlying repairs. This takes a long time. The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) are still refusing to allow us to fix our roads ourselves, although we continue to lodge requests to do repairs, and we have also offered to assist them with resources.

Meanwhile, we have seen Egoli Gas in Killarney, digging up pavements to repair gas leaks. The municipality has also repainted the road markings in various locations around Killarney, including in Killarney Avenue, in 4^th Avenue, in 3^rd Avenue and in 9^th Street, among others.  

Please would residents continue to report the many potholes and excavations in the roads to the JRA at hotline@jra.org.za or at 0860 562 874, and please always ask for a reference number. Please attach photos with your reports, if possible.

Valuable contributions from political candidates

Nomsa Mbatha, a community activist from Yeoville, has helped us to persuade the JMPD to finally act against our squatter sites. She has also helped in getting the municipality to fix our streetlights, and she has helped in other ways as well, at no cost to the residents. We thank Nomsa for her efforts and assistance. Nomsa Mbatha is standing as an independent candidate for Ward 67. Interested residents can communicate with Nomsa directly by WhatsApp on 084 333 4410, or via the WhatsApp group called “Nomsa Mbatha & Upper Killarney Ward 67 Community”, at https://chat.whatsapp.com/ILp9M01Q4WKK9mQF7k4j1B

Hilton Masera, the candidate for the Democratic Alliance in Ward 67, arranged for some potholes in Newtown Avenue to be repaired, and he has also pressured the municipality to repaint the streets and fix the streetlights, at no cost to the residents. We thank Hilton for his efforts and assistance. Interested residents can communicate with Hilton directly by WhatsApp on 060 542 7413.

Community upliftment projects

A garden has been created by volunteers on the northern (highway-side) pavement in Newtown Avenue, to beautify this vicinity, and to deter littering and hawking and squatting. The garden was created using plants that were donated by various generous residents, and more donations of plants are received from time to time. These new plants need to be planted as soon as they are received, and volunteers are not always available when needed. It was therefore resolved to allocate a once-off sum of R1,200 to pay for a casual gardener from time to time if needed, to promptly plant any additional plants that might be donated, and to help complete the establishment of this garden.

There are a number of other pavement beautification projects in our neighbourhood, and new pavement beautification projects are currently being implemented on the pavements of Dumbarton Oaks and Mentone Court. We encourage all buildings to clean and beautify their pavements as much as possible, and we encourage residents to join in and participate.

Killarney Mall taxi rank and refurbishment progress

The Killarney Mall owners are continuing to address the various suspensive conditions which are delaying the transfer of ownership to the buyers. They have told us that we should not expect to see much refurbishment progress until the end of the year. We have also contacted the buyers of the Killarney Mall, but they said they are not willing to enter into discussions with us until the legalities of the transfer have all been resolved. We did see in a news article that the Competition Commission has recently approved the sale, so hopefully things are getting closer to finality.

Killarney-Riviera Recycling Pilot Project

The Killarney-Riviera Recycling Project has been established in partnership with ARO (African Reclaimers Organisation), to help the “trolley-reclaimers” sort out and recycle any recyclable materials in our domestic refuse. This project adds a lot of value to us by reducing the amount of material that goes into our municipal landfills, and it also helps the recyclers themselves to earn a living – a win-win situation. You can interact with the pilot Killarney-Riviera Recycling Project at https://chat.whatsapp.com/L1IlY4t9C837nVxp5oD8QW.

Safety and Security focuses

We still have a problem with phone-snatching and purse-snatching on our pavements. This has been raised repeatedly with the SAPS. Meanwhile, the easiest preventative solution is for all buildings to warn their residents and visitors of this risk, and advise people not to stand on the pavement or walk in the street with a phone or valuables in their hands.

Vision Tactical Security have patrol cars in Killarney, and they are willing to react to all reports of criminal activity. If you notice any suspicious behaviour, you can contact the Vision Tactical Control Room on 084 222 2222, or on 061 071 2001, or on 010 972 2600. We thank Vision Tactical for this valuable community-minded service.

The City of Johannesburg maintains a WhatsApp tipoff line, at 078 221 0419, for reporting any contraventions of by-laws, including noise and disturbances, drinking, illegal parking etc. You need to report by-law contraventions while the problem is in progress – it doesn’t help to report it later when the problem has already disappeared. Please include full details of the problem, and the exact location. Photographic or video evidence is also very useful.

In addition, our Ward 73 ward councillor Eleanor Huggett can and will interface with JMPD on our behalf. Anybody who notes a by-law contravention can WhatsApp the details to her at 071 785 8068. Please include full details of the problem and the exact location of the problem, as well as also some photographic or video evidence to support your complaint if possible.

The illegal squatter problem has been raised repeatedly to the SAPS directly, as well as via the Community Policing Forum. Our SAPS Sector Manager, Warrant Officer Mdlolo, has been liaising with JMPD on the squatter problems, and JMPD has acted to remove these squatters. Unfortunately, the risk remains that these squatters will return, or that some new squatters will come to this area. JMPD has undertaken to remove any new squatters as often as needed, but they have limited resources.

Any sustainable solution to the squatting problem, will probably require the squatter areas to be fenced off. For the squatter area on the boundary of the Killarney golf course (alongside the motorway onramp onto the M1N at Riviera Road), it might be possible to move the boundary fence outwards a bit to help prevent future squatting, as was done previously at the corner of River Road and Riviera Road. JMPD are trying to put together a joint project to implement this idea. Unfortunately, fencing off the Newtown Avenue squatter site will be much more difficult and expensive, due to the shape and location and much larger size of the area in question.

The Themba Cleanup/Upliftment Projects

Themba Mhlope and his Cleanup team continue to do valuable work for us. The Cleanup project has been funded by private donations for the last year or so, and we are grateful for the personal donations that are being made every month by various people to support this valuable initiative. The project has developed over time, and there is currently also a street sweeper for one day per week. The street sweeper is actually needed for a second day as well, to better manage the street litter, but the current level of private donations cannot sustain this level of expenditure reliably. The meeting therefore resolved that the NKRA would allocate R1,500 of members’ money per month to support the cleanup project. You can interact with this project team at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KA4ejvnpF6pGjFg9SJ3KEn.

We thank the Dragon Pilates studio in the house in 3^rd Street, for funding the new wheelie-bin to be used by the NKRA street sweeper. Many thanks to them!

We are also researching the organisation called Pave the Way, which provides meals and temporary employment to “individuals experiencing hardship”. The workers clean pavements and gutters, including litter and weeds. They will charge us R250 per worker, for a morning’s work. They will transport and supervise their people themselves, they provide all tools and equipment, and they will remove their bags of rubbish afterward. The meeting agreed to use Pave the Way to clean a space in Killarney, as a pilot project to see what they can do.

This cleaning process is very necessary, but it is also very expensive. A littered neighbourhood degrades the appearance of the area, erodes our property values, and undermines our quality of life. Estate agents often ask how they can help to uplift the area. Because cleaner streets would also directly benefit estate agents, by improving the saleability of our properties and the resale prices thereof, we are asking the various estate agents who do business in Killarney-Riviera please to support our Cleanup Project. We know that times are hard, and that all small businesses need to be careful in managing their overhead expenditures. Therefore, we are not simply asking for charity. Whenever an estate agent (or other business) contributes to the NKRA Cleanup Project, we will thank them specifically in our monthly newsletter for their contribution. This would (hopefully) be slightly more valuable than ordinary advertising.

Ideally, we need to find a sponsor to provide committed funding for the Cleanup Project for an extended period. This will cost a lot of money, and we can perhaps agree with any such major sponsor to put their corporate branding on the project.

We still have the problem that some domestic helpers regularly drop household garbage into the pavement rubbish bins – usually because they are on their way home, and this saves them making the detour to their buildings’ rubbish-bin site. This adds a lot of extra waste to the pavement bins, which often overflow. The PikiTup workers are refusing to dig through the pavement bins to remove rotting food and soiled nappies, which further adds to the burden of rubbish which our Cleanup team must remove. The PikiTup workers have even resorted to tipping over some pavement bins, to stop people putting household garbage in the bins.

There are various reasons why people squat in the suburbs. Evidence found at the Newtown Avenue squatter site shows that some of these squatters have been gathering material from our wheelie-bins to build and “furnish” their shelters. It would help a lot if every building joined the recycling project, and sorted out any valuable materials for the ARO recyclers, leaving little of value in the bins to attract the squatters. A second problem is that some buildings put out their wheelie-bins the night before the PikiTup collection. Very few of the ARO recyclers come around the night before, so this leaves the wheelie-bins accessible to the squatters overnight. This attracts the squatters, and it undermines the recycling project.

We therefore request all buildings please to put out the wheelie-bins only on the Tuesday morning, please to encourage all your residents to join the ARO recycling project, and please to communicate to all the domestic helpers in your building to dump household garbage in the wheelie-bins and not in the pavement bins.

The Friends of the Library – Killarney

The Killarney branch of the Johannesburg public library is in the Killarney Mall. It is alongside the entrance to the banking area, on the bottom level of the parking structure on the Riviera Road side. The Friends of the Library in Killarney (the FOLK) hosted their third fundraising book sale in September at Killarney Mall. The event was once again a wonderful community endeavour, powered by dedicated volunteers and supported by neighbours who came out to browse and buy books. The sale raised much-needed funds to support the library, and it demonstrated the value of community involvement in sustaining our public spaces.

You can follow The Friends of the Library in Killarney @FriendsoftheLibraryKillarney on Instagram, to keep up with their activities and find out how you can get involved. You can also interact with them at https://chat.whatsapp.com/KrYlArsPHSRAiyoGHerC0s.

The Community Gardens project

Visit https://chat.whatsapp.com/Cjh3eJl57pv1XcoQ7OEBj9 to interact with the people who are involved in the community food garden project.

The community street walks

Visit https://chat.whatsapp.com/CGOgiBZSRmhDNTq5BVdccU?mode=wwt for the details of the community evening street walks.

Killarney Parkrun

Visit  https://www.parkrun.co.za/killarneycountryclub/ for the details of the Killarney Country Club Parkrun.

NKRA Membership

The members of the NKRA are the bodies corporate of the area, and membership of the NKRA is voluntary. This membership is renewed every year by the body corporate paying their annual membership “subscription” of R50 per annum per each unit in the building (there is  a maximum charge of R4,000 per building). Only the representatives of the member bodies corporate can vote on resolutions, with one vote per building, but all property owners, residents and employees of the buildings and businesses in the suburbs of Killarney and Riviera are welcome to attend our public meetings. 

So far this year, 41 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera are paid-up members – this is about 74% of the total. The list of the members currently is as follows:

• Berkeley Square
• Beverley Heights
• Biarritz
• Bolton Hall
• Brenthurst Court
• Bretton Woods
• Castlerosse
• Chartwell
• Chelston Hall
• Christina Court
• Cranwell Hall
• Daventry Court
• Devon Place
• Dumbarton Oaks
• Earl’s Court
• Gleneagles
• Glenhof Gardens
• Greenhills
• Hampshire House
• Hampshire Mews
• Highbury
• Hillside Village
• Hyde Court
• Interlaken
• Killarney Court and Gardens
• Killarney Hills
• Killarney Park
• Killarney Village
• Kingsborough
• Knightsbridge
• La Camargue
• Mentone Court
• Monviso
• Park Avenue
• Rapallo
• Riviera Mansions
• Riviera Villas
• Splice
• St John’s Wood
• The Rivieras
• Whitehall Court

We thank all these bodies corporate for their on-going support, which enables us to undertake small upliftment projects around the area for the benefit of all owners and residents. We also thank all the buildings and individual residents who make additional donations to the various community projects as well.

We also thank the following organisations for their on-going contributions:

• The Killarney Mall for providing the gardening service in the park;
• Russell Fisher Properties for funding the NKRA gardener in the park;
• Vision Tactical Security for providing a security guard in the park;
• RCS Security for providing a street sweeper.

The Vision of the NKRA is encapsulated in our motto: “Safer, Cleaner, Better, Greener”. In pursuit of these strategic objectives, we currently focus primarily on the following:

• Reducing the various crime risks on the streets;
• Undertaking various projects, including repairing municipal infrastructure where this is allowed, to make the area safer and to improve our quality of life;
• Reducing the squatter and hawker and taxi and street-drinking problems;
• Building up a sustainable recycling project;
• Supporting community projects such as the Cleanup/Upliftment project, the Killarney Library, the community food gardens project, and the community walking groups.

If you have any specific suggestions to help us implement this vision, please do share them. We welcome all inputs, on all issues. We are also happy to receive photographs of any interesting things that are happening in Killarney-Riviera, which we might include in future newsletters. If you wish to be added to the mailing list, to receive notices and agendas etc, please send an email to wdford@global.co.za. Our NKRA website is at www.nkra.org.za, our NKRA Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/groups/1915871842042728, and you can link to our Community WhatsApp Group at www.nkra.org.za/whatsapp-link/.

Our next NKRA monthly general meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 21 October 2026. All residents, owners and employees in Killarney and Riviera are welcome to attend. An agenda with a Microsoft Teams meeting link will be circulated in due course.

Please would you share this newsletter with all your neighbours in Killarney and Riviera?

Keep well, and keep safe.

.

New Killarney-Riviera Association – www.nkra.org.za

Ward Councillor Eleanor Huggett – 071 785 8068 and eleanorhuggett@gmail.com

Service Delivery Reporting Template – https://www.nkra.org.za/issue-reporting-templates/

Link to Community WhatsApp Group – https://www.nkra.org.za/whatsapp-link/