MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 15th JANUARY 2025

MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING OF THE

NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION

HELD VIRTUALLY OVER THE INTERNET

ON WEDNESDAY 15 JANUARY 2025 at 18H30

PRESENT:   Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Floh Thiele (La Camargue); Charles Whyte (Beverley Heights); Nadia Nikakhtar (Killarney Park); Ahmed Nanabhay (Knightsbridge).

1. WELCOME

• Wayne chaired the meeting. He opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees.

2.  APOLOGIES RECEIVED

• Kim Robinson (Killarney Hills); Johan Marnewick (Whitehall Court); Ian Morison (Killarney Park).

3. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES, AND MATTERS ARISING

• The minutes of the previous meeting have been circulated to all attendees, and have been approved by them. The details thereof were incorporated into the monthly newsletter.

4.  STATUS OF OUR SUBURB, AND LIST OF ISSUES REQUIRING ACTION

• Repainting street names on kerbs-: the work was done last year, but we are waiting for all the mosaic signs to be finished before we do the corrections. Bradley will be contacted to determine if any planned mosaics are still outstanding. Meanwhile, we need to do a full inspection to ensure that all street-names are correct, and to prepare a final snag list.
• Community upliftment initiative and the “Themba Cleanup Projects”-: Apparently there are some issues to be discussed, but Johan was unable to attend, so this item will be addressed at the next meeting. Johan will be asked to share any urgent issues by WhatsApp. We will need to expand the related fund-raising, including the promotion of debit-orders where possible. The current balance available for upliftment projects is R14,813, excluding the R10,000 which has been ring-fenced for the art-gate in the 4^th Street Park.
• Planned future WALKR projects include pressing City Parks to do regular clean-ups on the embankment, particularly tree pruning, and especially to address the trees which are impacting on the overhead electrical wires (City Power might also be responsible here).
• The small Anerley Park needs constant attention, in particular the clearing of the weeds before they spread. Community members will be requested to do some weeding here whenever they have the time and energy, and group gardening efforts will be planned and implemented. The replacement of the stolen steel fence along the highway is on hold, but residents are busy planting donated Kei-apple trees along the fence-line. We welcome the donations of cuttings of succulents, in particular.
• Trolley recyclers-: Nadia met with the Urban Surfers organisation at Hollard, and another meeting is being planned with the African Reclaimers Organisation in February. The ARO has a lot of information and contacts, and they can also assist us in our future discussions with the trolley recyclers and the recycling companies.
• Illegal hawkers, and illegal drinking on pavements-: These problems will not go away by themselves. Residents need to constantly report issues to the municipal call centre, get reference numbers, and escalate this to the ward councillor. It helps a lot if we can include photographs. We will continue to report these problems at the CPF meetings, which is the official communication channel between communities and the law-enforcement bodies. Floh reports that JMPD does sometimes attend the CPF meetings, but they keep rotating the officers who attend, so building a relationship with JMPD has been slow and difficult.
• The on-going risks of cell-phone snatching on pavements, and pick-pockets-: Floh will continue to press at the CPF meetings for increased visible police patrols in our area.
• Improving lighting on the pavements-: We cannot rely on City Power, so we need to attempt to illuminate any dangerous dark areas ourselves. This should include the 4^th Avenue bridge. Non-functioning street-lights have been identified and mapped and reported to City Power, but the response is slow. It was agreed that we need an NKRA project, to identify a handful of particularly dangerous dark areas, to create a plan for each, and then to approach the trustees of the nearest buildings with customised plans and costings. Floh will research the technical aspects, options and costs. Charles will look closely at the Riviera Road pavement outside Daventry Court, which is seriously unsafe and which could be a valuable pilot project.
• Community Street patrols-: These are adding a lot of value, and we will continue to support them and publicise them.
• NKRA Community Gardens project-: The pilot planting in the park has been very successful, and more planting is being planned. We will also try to encourage other buildings to create food gardens on their pavements.
• New art gate in the 4^th Street Park, and old gate on the 7^th Street embankment-: We have received official municipal authorisation to install the art gate in the park at the 4^th Avenue entrance. We need a welder, and it was agreed to ask the artist (James) to do the installation for us, as it may require some modifying, adjusting and repainting. We still need municipal authorisation to install the existing park gate into the fence on the embankment, and it is too risky to proceed without clear municipal authorisation. Nadia will continue to pursue this with Jenny Moodley.
• Killarney Mall refurbishment progress-: There has not yet been any new feedback from the Mall owners this year. It was noted that the many delivery scooters that gather and park in Killarney Avenue are a risk to motorists and pedestrians. The problems caused by the illegal parking in Killarney Avenue will again be emphasised at the CPF meetings.

5.  NEW ISSUES

• The various incomplete road repairs pose a significant danger to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. The JRA leaves these holes for a few months to be “compacted” by vehicles, but as the rain washes away the soil, the holes become dangerous, and cars try to avoid them. It was proposed to top up each of these dangerous holes with loose rubble and stones, so as to eliminate the immediate danger, and to allow cars to resume actually compacting the soil in the hole. We will use the newsletter and the WhatsApp groups to ask anybody who is doing renovations and is generating stones and rubble, to let us know.
• The municipality has again changed the property rating process, in the search for more revenue. They are allowed to reduce the Section 15 rebate in cases where an owner owns more than one property in Johannesburg. In some of our older buildings, the staff room or parking space may have a separate title deed, and some of these cases are now being billed as though the owner has two properties. It was proposed to send the municipal authority a letter of complaint, emphasising that the staff room etc is actually part of a single property.
• On the pavement between 4^th Ave and St Johns Wood, a pile of bricks is attracting litter. The small decorative steel boundary fence has suffered some knocks over the decades, and is now looking a bit sad. This is negatively affecting the appearance of the vicinity. The trustees of St Johns Wood will be contacted to discuss upgrading this area.
• A schedule has been created of issues requiring municipal attention. This schedule must be kept updated, as issues are repaired, and as new issues arise. The community will be requested to submit issues of which they are aware.

The meeting was closed at 19h59.

Our next meeting will be held virtually on

WEDNESDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2025 AT 18H30

PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS

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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