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.
MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 16th SEPTEMBER 2026
MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING OF
THE NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION
HELD VIRTUALLY OVER THE INTERNET
ON WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2026 at 18H30
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PRESENT: Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Charles Whyte (Beverley Heights); Nadia Nikakhtar (Killarney Park); Trish Terry (Gleneagles); Kim Robinson (Killarney Hills); Floh Thiele (La Camargue); Nazim Jawoodeen (Highbury); Debbi Schultz (Bretton Woods); Amber Cheng (The Rivieras); Rafaeel Dockrat (Hillside Village); Nabeela Gangat (Sloane Square); Eleanor Huggett (Ward Councillor – Ward 73); Dominic Bauer (Ward 73).
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1. WELCOME
- Wayne chaired the meeting. He opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees.
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2. APOLOGIES RECEIVED
- George Kymdell.
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3. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES, AND MATTERS ARISING
- The minutes of the previous meeting have been circulated to all attendees previously. There were no amendments. The minutes were approved.
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4. STATUS OF OUR SUBURB, AND LIST OF ISSUES REQUIRING ACTION
a) Fence along Newtown Avenue –:
There is a hole in the Newtown Avenue fence in the corner of the 7th Steet carpark, where some concrete pales have been broken out.
Rather than sealing the hole in the fence, it has been agreed with City Parks to install a gate, to allow controlled access to the embankment whenever maintenance work is required.
The gate installation will utilise an old City Parks gate, which was removed from the 4th 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, and concrete foundations will be needed for the gate posts. The amount of welding and other labour will be substantial, and the welders will also need a generator. The cost will be R5,000.
It was resolved to allocate R5,000 to install this gate.
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b) Graffiti cleanup –:
There are about a dozen Telkom pavement boxes on the pavements which have been graffitied and/or are rusted, 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 4th Avenue pavement at Bretton Woods.
We propose to do this remediation work ourselves, rather than hiring a service-provider. This will allow us to better manage the costs, and the quality of the work done. We will consult the paint stores for advice, and there is a painter named Fabian in Killarney who refurbished the park benches, and whom we can approach for help if need be.
It was agreed to paint all the Telkom boxes in a single colour, using the dark green paint which is used by the municipality on steel park fences. This will look nice, and we know that this paint is robust and hard-wearing.
It was noted that graffiti is normally done with spray paint, and that some paint stores might sell chemical paint remover specifically designed to remove this graffiti paint. This will need to be researched and tested.
There is also the risk that the graffiti-vandals will re-offend, and that some of this remedial work may need to be repeated at some future stage. It was agreed to accept this risk and to proceed anyway, and to keep some spare paint on hand to touch up in future, if needed.
It was noted that we may be able to buy a paint coating that resists further paint, and which will make it easier to remove graffiti in the future. This will need to be researched as well.
It was agreed to also do some other cleanup work at the same time, such as straightening signposts where necessary.
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. It was agreed therefore to start with a pilot project, and to learn from experience as we go. Once we better understand what work is involved and how much it will cost, we will vote again to allocate further resources.
It was resolved to allocate R5,000 for a pilot project to clean up the graffiti.
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c) Extra funding for cleanup project –:
When the Themba Cleanup project was started, the NKRA allocated R24,000 of members’ money to help cover the on-going costs. However, the Themba Cleanup project has been funded by private donations for the last year or so. The project has developed over time, and there is currently also a street sweeper for one day per week. It is now proposed to hire a street sweeper for a second weekday as well, to better manage the street litter. The current level of private donations cannot sustain this level of expenditure reliably, so it is requested that the NKRA allocate R1,500 of members’ money per month to support the cleanup project.
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 recently did a cleanup in Oxford Road.
They will charge us R250 per person, for a morning’s work. They transport and supervise their people themselves, they provide all tools and equipment, and they will remove their bags of rubbish afterward. This last aspect is particularly attractive to us.
It was agreed to research using Pave the Way to clean a road in Killarney, as a pilot project to see what they can do, and how well they do it.
It was noted that the NKRA funds come from voluntary contributions by members and donors, that we have no contractual right to receive any revenue, and that we therefore cannot commit to paying large amounts of money into the future.
It was suggested that we should try to find sponsors for this project, if possible.
We will approach the various estate agents who operate in Killarney. They benefit directly if the streets are cleaner and more attractive, because this improves both saleability and property prices. We will not ask them for charity, instead we will offer to publicly thank them in the monthly newsletter for every donation they make that month, which will be a form of value-adding marketing for them.
We also need to be careful about creating dependency. Service providers like Themba have formal jobs elsewhere, as do the workers involved in the pavement repair project, and they are not dependent on the NKRA to feed their families. We need to avoid taking on a worker who might become dependent on the NKRA for their livelihood.
It was resolved to allocate R1,500 per month to support the cleanup projects.
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d) Funding needed to complete the Newtown Avenue pavement garden project -:
A garden has been created on the 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 residents.
Many plants have been planted already, but more donations of plants are received from time to time. These new plants need to be planted quickly, and volunteers are not always available when needed. It has been proposed to employ a gardener from time to time to plant any additional plants that might be donated, and to do other work required to complete the establishment of this garden.
It was resolved to allocate a once-off sum of R1,200 to hire an extra gardener as needed.
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e) Pavement repair projects –:
The Thabo Mbeki Foundation project to repair our various asphalt pavements will go ahead, but it is being affected by the weather.
Joburg Water have replaced the leaking water meter at Bretton Woods in 4th Avenue, but the new meter is also leaking. Once this is fixed, we will repair the pavement. We have soil and rubble for backfill, and most of the original paving bricks are still available on site.
There are some serious municipal excavations on pavements in Anerley Road, but we don’t know if those repairs are complete, or if more work is still intended.
Apart from the above, the pavement repair project is basically finished – until the municipality digs up our pavements again to perform further repairs.
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f) Potholes and excavations in the streets –:
The municipal asphalt plant is back in action. Some potholes were repaired in Anerley Road recently. The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has promised to send us a schedule of time frames for pothole repairs in Killarney.
Before JRA can do reinstatements, JRA must first wait for Joburg Water and Egoli Gas etc to sign off on the underlying repairs.
Meanwhile, we are still using rubble and soil to temporarily backfill the dangerous holes, to improve safety.
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g) Community Policing Forum -:
George has apologised for tonight, but he has provided feedback.
Our various issues have been raised at the Community Policing Forum. JMPD has promised to continue to provide increased visibility in Killarney. JMPD and SAPS will continue to work to deter incidents of street crime.
The illegal squatter problem has been raised to the CPF, and also to the police directly.
Our SAPS Sector Manager, Warrant Officer Mdlolo, is liaising with JMPD on the squatter problem, and JMPD have told her that actions are already underway to remove these squatters. We thank Warrant Officer Mdlolo for her efforts, and we hope to have positive feedback soon.
There is always the risk that more squatters will come to this area, and we know that the problem will not be resolved in a day.
Once the squatters are gone, we will ask PikiTup to do an urgent cleanup of the site.
The other main safety and security issues are still phone snatching, the illegal taxi rank, illegal dumping and littering.
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5. NEW ISSUES
In general, advertising is only allowed on municipal roads and pavements if fees have been paid to the municipality. This is indicated by a bright neon sticker attached to a corner of the poster. Sign-boards for estate agents are also specifically permitted, but there are clear rules about the sizes, numbers and positions of the signboards allowed. All other adverts on the pavements are illegal and can be removed by anybody.
No additional issues were raised.
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The meeting closed at 20h01.
Our next meeting will be held virtually on
WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER AT 18H30
PLEASE SHARE THESE MINUTES WITH OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS
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New Killarney-Riviera Association – www.nkra.org.za
Ward Councillor Eleanor Huggett – eleanorhuggett@gmail.com and 071 785 8068
Service Delivery Reporting Template – https://www.nkra.org.za/issue-reporting-templates/
Link to Community WhatsApp Group – https://www.nkra.org.za/whatsapp-link/