NEWSLETTER- FEBRUARY 2011

NEWSLETTER – FEBRUARY 2011

VICTIM SUPPORT CENTRE
Hillbrow Police Station operates a Victim Support Room, where lost children and crime victims can have some privacy while they talk to detectives, receive first aid, wait to be collected and the like. This facility has been worn out over the years by heavy use, and is now being renovated and re-equipped by the Community Policing Forum.
Crime victims have already suffered a lot, and often they only report the crime once they have recovered, by which time it’s often too late to act on that information. If they can be a bit less uncomfortable at the police station, hopefully more victims of crime will come forward with their stories immediately, and more can be done to catch the criminals.
We therefore appealed to the community to assist with this renovation, and the response from the Killarney sector has been magnificent. Many residents of Killarney have come forward with donations of blankets and towels, books and toys, cups and plates, curtains and furniture etc.
A company in the Parktown sector, Chartis Insurance, financed the repainting project as well as supplying a microwave oven, a folding cot and some other furnishings. They also made this a company project, and a number of their staff came to help with the painting, bringing along their spouses and children too.
Captain Magowa, the current commander of the victim support section, was overwhelmed by the generosity of the community.

PAVEMENT COMPETITION
The NKRA Pavement Pride competition was won by Devon Place, with St John’s Wood as the runner-up. The judging was done by the sponsor, Nomsa Nene, who has recently left Wendy Mechanik Properties to found her own business, and who continues to support us.
Many thanks to Nomsa for her efforts here, and many thanks also to all the many buildings who continue to clean, maintain and beautify their pavements.

NEW RULES FOR MANAGING AGENTS
In terms of the law, all managing agents must be companies, and must register with the EAAB. If your agent is causing your building to suffer losses, you can seek redress with the EAAB. Furthermore, per the Sectional Titles Act, if any trustee has caused their body corporate to suffer loss, then that trustee could be held personally liable to repay that loss.
You can contact George Kymdell for specialist advice at devdyl@absamail.co.za.

TAXI PROBLEMS
For many years we have had illegal taxi ranks in the streets alongside the Killarney Mall, which have been causing various problems for residents, motorists and pedestrians. At a recent site meeting with one of the two taxi associations concerned, which was attended by Ward Councillor Marcelle Ravid, all parties were able to agree on the following:
• Many of the workers and shoppers at the Mall are dependent on public transport, and are thus dependent on the taxi industry.
• The City Council has made no provision whatsoever for the taxi service.
• The City Council has told us they have no plans to provide public transport facilities until their BRT project is rolled out in Killarney, which will be in about 2013 only.
• The Mall has no legal obligation to provide any taxi facilities on their property.
• As a result the commuters, the residents and the taxi drivers are all exposed to significant safety and hygiene concerns, as well as a lot of general inconvenience.
• The problem is not going to go away until the BRT arrives, and continuing to demand that JMPD enforce the by-laws against the taxis, without providing alternative facilities for the many commuters, is unworkable.
• A temporary solution must be found, which can equitably meet the needs of all parties until the promised BRT facilities arrive.
• A proper taxi rank is totally unacceptable, but a simple pick-up-and-go arrangement – with ablution facilities – can be workable.
• Once we have a viable alternative in place, the JMPD will be better able to act against any taxis which park illegally in the area, as the alibi of “the poor innocent commuters” will have been removed.

As a pro-active approach toward addressing these problems while we wait for the BRT, we agreed at that meeting to investigate the following possible solutions:
• The traffic congestion and the parking in no-parking areas could be resolved by dedicating four of the public parking bays in 1st Street to the two taxi associations, to be used for pick-up-and-go only. This will require the painting of reservations on the road, and enforcement by the taxi marshals. The other taxis would need to park elsewhere while they wait their turn.
• The urinating on the pavement by taxi commuters could be resolved by building a small public toilet facility on that pavement. There are sewage and water pipes under the pavement of 1st Street already, to service the Mentone Court building. The Faraday Taxi Association has offered to pay for the construction and maintenance of that public facility, if we can get approval from Council.
In order to move forward, we need to first ascertain from the Council the extent to which they would be prepared to approve and support the two ideas above.
Once we know what the Council is prepared to allow, we will need to discuss this with the residents in the immediate vicinity, and develop a degree of consensus.
Thereafter we will need to hold formal discussions with the two taxi associations concerned, based on our mandate from our community and with the involvement of the Council, to reach an enforceable agreement.
Please let us have your opinions about these suggested solutions, and your own ideas, at wdford@global.co.za.

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Our newsletters are kindly sponsored by Nomsa Nene Properties.

(NOMSA NENE ESTATE AGENT (CRS) (PDE) (NQL4)(RPL) SECTIONAL TITLE SPECIALIST)
Email: Nomsa@neneprop.co.za I Website: www.neneprop.co.za | Fax to email: 086 617 4662
Office tell: 011 486 0569 I Office fax: 011 486 4698 I Mobile: 083 964 2665 4662