MINUTES FOR THE MEETING OF THE 21st FEBRUARY 2018

MINUTES FOR THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING OF THE
NEW KILLARNEY-RIVIERA ASSOCIATION
HELD AT ROOM 223 OF THE MALL OFFICE TOWER
ON WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2018 AT 17H00

PRESENT: Wayne Ford (Killarney Village); Julie Wilson (Killarney Hills); Faye Sher (Whitehall Court); Trish Terry (Gleneagles); Captain Moonsamy (SAPS); Rochester Shen (Mentone Court); Mike Kalk (Brenthurst Court); Eleanor Huggett (Ward Councillor); Elena Joaquim (St Johns Wood); Sipho Dlova (Killarney Gardens); Annica Marincowitz (Chartwell); George Kymdell (NAMA); Kayte Denham (Pam Golding Properties).

1. WELCOME
The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. The venue was changed to the larger room at the last minute, and this will hopefully be our new regular venue.

2. APOLOGIES
Paulo Joaquim (Sevenoaks); Margaret Urban (Hanover Gate); Harry Rutenberg (Sevenoaks); Dalien Rutenberg (Glenhof Gardens); Charles Whyte (Beverley Heights); Dean Dada (RCS Security); Vivienne Cobbett (Biarritz); Tony Mantle (Gleneagles);

3. DISCUSSION OF TIME CONSTRAINT
• We will strive to keep the discussions short and relevant, so as to finish by 6pm.

4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
• The Minutes of the previous meeting were taken as read, and were approved.

5. SECURITY FEEDBACK / SECTOR CRIME FORUM
• Captain Moonsamy presented the crime statistics for the past six weeks. There were 7 thefts of vehicles; 1 thefts out of vehicles; 6 shopliftings; 2 business robberies; 1 armed robbery; 1 carjacking of a delivery van; 3 general theft. The car theft situation was much worse than normal this month – we hope this is a once-off and that it will improve next month.
• The situation at the illegal taxi rank in 1st Street is still problematic. In particular the SAPS were asked to rigorously enforce the Gauteng Liquor Act, which forbids the consumption of alcohol on a pavement near a road.
• It was noted that staff members or residents sometimes grow dagga (marijuana) in the complex gardens, particularly around quiet corners. This is seriously illegal. Please would you all advise your trustees and garden staff and caretakers to be on the look-out for such plants.
• The illegal car-washing was raised again. It was once again clarified that, although most illegal car-washers and hawkers etc are probably decent people who are simply trying to earn a living, we cannot demand the enforcement of the by-laws against some illegal activities while selectively condoning similar illegal activities. It was once again clarified that any slippage of the by-laws opens the door to further deterioration, as has happened at the illegal taxi rank in 1st Street where we now have entrenched drug-peddlers and alcohol-vendors. While we continue the struggle to restore the by-laws in 1st Street, a lot of effort is also going into preventing 3rd Street from sliding down the same path.
• It was agreed that the car-washers are entitled to offer their services on private land if they have permission from the landowners. However there is a legal car wash service at the Mall which employs numerous people in formal employment, and their jobs can be better protected if we support them as well.
• Please call the police immediately when you notice illegal or suspicious behaviour. It doesn’t help to call them a few days later to complain. We also need photographic evidence where possible, to help with identifications and prosecutions.
• We need a new person to represent us at the Community Policing Forum at Hillbrow Police Station one evening per month. Sipho volunteered to ask Cheryl Sack to consider taking on this role, and she is very committed to restoring law and order. However if anybody else has the time and the energy, please do volunteer. We can very easily have a “team” to represent us, so that one person doesn’t carry the job all on their own.
• Another request was made to the SAPS to consider placing a satellite police station (an SAPS caravan) in Killarney.

6. FEEDBACK FROM COUNCILLORS
• Councillor Huggett gave feedback on the by-law situation. She has done an inspection together with officers from the Urban Inspectorate, and a number of issues have been logged for action. When you call in to report problems, please keep the reference number, and send it to Clr Huggett for monitoring on 071 785 8068.
• Councillor Huggett was asked to push JMPD to work more closely with the SAPS. The SAPS have resources and are willing to intervene in by-law issues, but are not allowed to do so without the participation of JMPD, unless they see that a crime is being committed.
• Councillor Huggett enjoys good support from a senior JMPD officer who has authority in our area. If you report by-law infringements to her in real-time, she is able to pass them on to this officer, who will hopefully assist us to get a better response from JMPD than we have had thus far. Councillor Huggett is usually in meetings and cannot answer her phone, but she monitors SMS and Whatsapp all the time, and can forward your messages instantly. Please contact her on 071 785 8068, as soon as you notice a problem in progress.
• Apparently a number of top people at the Johannesburg Roads Agency have been dismissed, so there is a bit of a backlog there at the moment.
• The big excavation made by Joburg Water at the corner of Riviera Road and 4th Ave has finally been completely reinstated, and the road is now clear for smooth traffic flow. However some other water-repair reinstatements have been outstanding for a very long time, particularly in 9th Street. Councillor Huggett was requested to continue to pursue this please.
• Some other potholes and cases of subsiding reinstatements have also been repaired by JRA, particularly in 4th Ave. This is a busy road, so these repairs are very welcome, and we thank Clr Huggett for pursuing this for us.

7. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
• The project to clean up the trees on the pavements has yielded good results, and many trees have been cleaned up. However new illegal advertising signs keep appearing, and we ask all residents please to keep an eye on the trees in your vicinity.
• Rubble is dumped illegally on pavements all the time. Please call Philemon at the municipality on 071 855 4605 to report illegal dumping, and they will hopefully come to remove it.
• The City Parks team who maintain our park have still not managed to remove the huge branches that have fallen over the year. These branches have been accumulating at the 2nd Ave gate for quite a while. It was agreed that we should get a tree felling company to cut up and remove those huge branches, so that the area can be properly cleaned up.
• Last year it was suggested that we should repair the park benches where some planks have started to crumble, and repaint all of them. There have been no objections to this idea since then. We struggled to find somebody reliable to quote, and so far we only have one quote for R8810. This covers replacing the planks that are rotting, scraping and sand-papering all planks, and repainting all the benches. The meeting agreed to proceed with this quote. If any member building is unhappy with this decision, or is able to recommend a good contractor, please let us know urgently.
• We also need to decide what colour to paint the park benches – should we keep them dark green, or perhaps try another colour?
• A resident has started to weed the park lawns, so as to remove the weeds that have painful thorns. She is asking for residents to join her in this project. You can donate bags for the refuse (preferably non-plastic if possible), or money to buy bags or to hire a gardener to help, or you can donate your own time and efforts to personally assist with this project.
• The park is quite huge, and weeds grow back quickly, so it was suggested that we start by choosing a small portion of the lawn to create a “clean” picnic area, and to focus our efforts on keeping that section clean.
• A number of our residents donate a Saturday morning once a month to clean up the neighbourhood – perhaps some extra people would like to assist with restoring the park lawns as their way of making a contribution?
• A new flower bed has been created along the outside of the 4th Ave fence, to take advantage of the direct sunshine and the fog-harvesting capacity of the steel palisade fence. All donations of suitable plants are most welcome.
• The project to repaint the street names on all the kerb stones has been authorised, and the work is now in progress. Please would you all keep an eye on this work, and let us know urgently if they accidentally paint an incorrect name on a kerb.
• It has been reported that the buildings in 1st Street are seeing an increase in visible rat activity. However nowhere else seemed to be having a problem just yet. Please let us know if you start noticing more rats than usual.
• It has been suggested to add a top-up of fresh sand to the sandpit in the park play area. We will try to get quotes.
• Please report problems of potholes and pavements to the JRA at http://www.jra.org.za/find-and-fix-mobile-app, or call 011 375 5555.
• Please use the number 0860 562 874 to report all road and pavement-related problems to the municipality. This includes all cases of rubble being dumped on pavements, potholes in roads or pavements, road signs in need of repair, streetlights not working, blocked storm-drains, or traffic lights out of order. You can also report all of these issues to the call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342. Please keep the reference numbers for follow-up.

8. FINANCE AND MEMBERSHIP
• The 2018 invoices for membership subscriptions will be sent out soon. We would greatly appreciate your continued support.

9. GENERAL
• The new property rates valuations have been completed, and they are available to view at https://coj2018.evaluations.co.za/eServices/Index.aspx. Please also share this link with your friends and neighbours.
• A question was raised about the survey which is being done in Killarney by an organisation called The Point. It was clarified that they have been hired by the We Love Killarney group, who are the people who attempted last year to create a City Improvement District in Killarney. This CID idea has now been abandoned.
• Kayte Denham gave a brief overview of the work currently being done by the We Love Killarney group. According to Kayte, who is part of the group, they are trying to enhance the lifestyle of the residents of Killarney-Riviera by creating a sense of community fellowship, staging regular public events to bring the community together, and harnessing the collective creativity to generate fresh ideas. This research is intended to result in an urban development plan, and will lead to actual projects as well.
• This clearly overlaps in part with what the NKRA does. However the NKRA was created to protect Killarney-Riviera from the slide into urban decay that happened in Hillbrow etc, and the NKRA therefore focuses primarily on trying to get the authorities to actually do their jobs, although we have obviously undertaken many projects as well over the years when appropriate opportunities arose.
• There is certainly room for We Love Killarney to add value, and the NKRA will obviously support any of their projects which coincide with our own objectives.
• A particular individual was quite disruptive at this month’s meeting, and had to be called to order repeatedly. All members are reminded that the NKRA meetings are formal meetings, not social conversations. While we try to avoid unnecessary rigidity, normal rules of meetings do actually apply, and it is NOT acceptable to interrupt a speaker with questions while they are speaking.

The meeting was closed, with thanks to the Killarney Mall for hosting us.

Our next meeting will be held on
WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH 2018 at 5pm

PLEASE PASS ON THESE MINUTES TO OTHER RESIDENTS IN YOUR BUILDINGS

JMPD call centre hotline number – 080 872 3342.
SAPS patrol van – 071 675 6001
If you get no response, please call the Hillbrow Joint Operations Command Centre
on 011 488 6712, or call 10111.