NKRA Communique – February 2026

Hi everyone

The February NKRA monthly general meeting was held virtually by internet on 18 February 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 18 March 2026. All of the residents, owners and employees in Killarney and Riviera are welcome to participate. A formal agenda with a Microsoft Teams meeting link will be circulated in due course.

Pavement Repairs

The NKRA has completed the necessary repairs to the Riviera Road pavement at the corner of Oxford Road. When this work was almost finished, it was disrupted by a serious burst water pipe which required part of our new paving to be dug up again, but the work is now finally finished, and the pavement is much safer for pedestrians. When more municipal repairs are required in the future, the municipal contractors will be able to simply lift and remove these new pavers, and then put them back again when they are finished.

The NKRA has also completed the necessary repairs to the Riviera Road pavement near the corner of 4^th Avenue. Once again, shortly after we finished repairing this stretch of pavement, the municipality dug it up again to do a further repair to the water meter, and we had to fix it again. This stretch of this high-traffic area is also now much safer for pedestrians.

The NKRA has also repaired an area of damaged pavement in Riviera Road around the new water meter outside Earl’s Court, near the corner of 2^nd Avenue. There was a dangerous open manhole here, and after a lot of complaining, the Joburg Water entity finally attended to it. Unfortunately, they replaced the entire manhole with a new above-ground water meter, which now seriously obstructs this narrow section of this high-traffic pavement. They didn’t fix the paving at all, which made this section very difficult for prams and wheelchairs, and for people walking at night.

The project to repair the kerbstones on the 4^th Avenue pavement outside Bretton Woods, which were displaced by municipal pipe-repairs, is still on hold. This is partly because water is still running down that gutter from the leaking water valve in 3^rd Street, and we cannot work with concrete in an area where water is constantly running. In addition, a new water leak has developed in the road adjacent to this repair area, and when Joburg Water comes to fix it, they will possibly again dig up the area where we intend to replace the lost kerbstones. We have temporarily banked up these kerbs to prevent soil erosion, and this project will be completed once all the water leaks have been repaired by the Joburg Water entity.

The repair of the two excavations on the north pavement in Newtown Road, alongside the motorway, is still in progress. We had finished backfilling and compacting both areas, but then (almost inevitably) the MTN company returned to dig them up again to do more work. MTN have assured us that they are now finished this job, so we will shortly finalise these repairs. We will also offer to help JCPZ to attend to the trees that are damaging the concrete security fence along that pavement, and thereafter we will fix the concrete fence as well. There is also a longer-term plan to plant a garden on this pavement at the eastern end of the road.

We have undertaken an experimental repair in 10^th Street, which we are told the municipality considers to be a private road. Last year City Power dug up the road and pavements in several places. A Killarney resident has sourced a new asphalt repair technology, which is better, quicker and easier than other methods. We paid R8,288 for these materials, but the resident provided the labour and equipment for free. This was done partly as a test to see how well this novel technology works, and so far, it is looking good. However, a lot of further repair work is still required on the pavements, which were also badly damaged by City Power.

Street Repairs

The municipality has been slow in fixing our roads, but the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) assures us that they have scheduled repairs in Killarney-Riviera to address all our serious issues. Our road-safety challenges were recently exacerbated by the excavations in 7^th Street by Egoli Gas to repair a leaking gas pipe. These excavations have made a serious mess of the road, and traffic going in both directions at the circle has been forced to share a single lane. While we wait for the promised service delivery, please all continue to report the various potholes and excavations in the roads to the JRA at hotline@jra.org.za or at 0860 562 874, and please ask for a reference number every time.

We have started using an online platform to log all potholes and water leaks, as a test. The online platform is at https://citymendersa-new.web.app/. Please enter “Killarney Mall” as the location, and please add all issues as you notice them.

Killarney Mall taxi rank and refurbishment progress

The Killarney Mall has finally been sold, to AJPG Property 1 (Pty) Limited, reportedly for R397.5 million. The AJP Group has been in business for over 30 years, and they own a number of shopping malls around the Witwatersrand. You can get more details about the company, and the other malls they own, at https://www.ajpg.net/properties.php.

We hope that these new owners will begin the long-awaited mall refurbishment project as soon as possible, and that this project will include the urgent creation of a taxi facility on the Mall premises to finally resolve our long-standing illegal taxi-rank situation. However, there are still some standard conditions to be met before the purchaser takes full control of the Killarney Mall – the purchaser needs to complete a due diligence review, consent must be obtained from the various bankers to release the existing mortgage bonds and suretyships, and the parties need to obtain approval for the sale from the competition authorities, in terms of the Competition Act. These processes will apparently take about six more months.

Killarney Mall is proud to once again present Easter in the Park on Saturday, 28 March 2026, from 10h00 to 15h00. This community-orientated event will again feature an exciting Easter Egg hunt, loads of fun games where children can win prizes, interacting with a friendly Easter Bunny, and the always-popular face painter. There will be an MC to guide the kids on the activities, and there will be music – but this will be controlled. There is no entrance fee, and all activities are free of charge for children to enjoy (while stocks last). Parallel with the fun in the park, there will also be an Easter Market inside the Killarney Mall, and the Friends of the Killarney Library will be holding their book-sale to raise funds for the library.

Constitutional Amendment Proposal

A suggestion has been made for the existing NKRA constitution to be given a “facelift”. The NKRA constitution is working well, it is fully compliant with all the applicable laws, and it is not essential to change it. However, we are open to improving it further.

Ultimately, an amendment to the NKRA constitution can be made only by a resolution of a majority of the NKRA member buildings, where each member building has one vote. A list of suggested amendments will be compiled and presented to the NKRA member buildings, and each member building will need to decide internally upon their building’s position. Member buildings may support some of the proposed amendments but not all of them, so each of the proposed amendments will be voted on individually. The voting will be done using a physical ballot paper, so that confusion can be avoided, and a record can be retained.

All residents are invited to offer suggestions for improving the NKRA constitution, by email to NKRA2026@gmail.com. Residents have until the next NKRA meeting, 18 March, to submit any suggested amendments. The NKRA constitution itself can be found on the NKRA website, at https://www.nkra.org.za/about/.

Killarney-Riviera Recycling Pilot Project

It is essential that we all sort out and recycle any recyclable materials in our domestic refuse. For many buildings, the “trolley-reclaimers” are doing this for us. To help this process, the Killarney-Riviera Recycling Project has been established in partnership with ARO (African Reclaimers Organisation). ARO has provided us with green wheelie-bins in which we can accumulate all our recyclable materials, and ARO is sending their trucks into Killarney on Tuesdays to assist the reclaimers. ARO also undertakes to ensure that our area is left clean after they are done. You can interact with the Killarney-Riviera Recycling Project at https://chat.whatsapp.com/L1IlY4t9C837nVxp5oD8QW.

Park Upliftment Projects

The mature jacaranda trees in the park need to be pruned, for safety reasons as well as to protect the trees themselves from storm damage. Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo (JCPZ) do not have the capacity to address this, but they are willing to allow us to hire an outside contractor to do the work, at our own expense, provided the JCPZ are also present on the day to monitor and supervise the work. The JCPZ woodchipper is now back in service, but the truck is still being repaired. We hope to get this pruning done in a week or two.

Safety and Security focuses

The risks of cell-phones being snatched on pavements, and pick-pockets, are an on-going concern. We continue to ask all buildings to warn their residents and visitors not to stand or walk on the pavement with a phone or valuables in their hands.

At the Community Policing Forum meetings, we are asking for a police kiosk to be set up at the taxi area in 1^st Street, staffed by uniformed police officers with full authority. A constant police presence would greatly deter the selling of drugs at this corner, as well as any other illegal activities and by-law contraventions. Private security guards have no authority on the street, and the criminals are aware of this.

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 Joburg has created a WhatsApp tipoff line, at 078 221 0419, for reporting all by-law contraventions, including noise and disturbances, drinking, illegal parking, littering etc. Reporting of by-law contraventions must be done while the problem is in progress – there is no value in reporting it days later, when the problem has disappeared. When you report you also need to send them full details of the problem, and the exact location.

In addition, our ward councillor Eleanor Huggett has offered to interface with JMPD on our behalf. Anybody who notes a by-law contravention can WhatsApp the details to Councillor Huggett at 071 785 8068. Once again, you must 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.

The Friends of the Library – Killarney

The Friends of the Library in Killarney (FOLK) are preparing to hold another book sale to raise funds for the Killarney Library. This will take place on 27th and 28th March, at the Killarney Mall. They are requesting additional donations of books. You can give donated books directly to the librarian, or after hours you can deposit them through the book return slot in the front door. They also need volunteers to help work at the book sale. You can interact with the FOLK at https://chat.whatsapp.com/KrYlArsPHSRAiyoGHerC0s

The Community Gardens project

The community food garden is doing well. A group of residents are operating a shared bokashi project, which converts food waste into nutrient-dense garden fertiliser. You can interact with them at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Cjh3eJl57pv1XcoQ7OEBj9.

The Community Night WALKR’s street walks

The Community Night WALKR’s street walks are continuing. You can interact with the [KR] Social Walkers at https://chat.whatsapp.com/CGOgiBZSRmhDNTq5BVdccU?mode=wwt.

The Themba Cleanup/Upliftment Projects

The Themba Cleanup team continues to do regular cleaning and fixing around the area. You can interact with this team at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KA4ejvnpF6pGjFg9SJ3KEn.

NKRA Membership

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

The invoices for the membership “subscriptions” for the year ahead were sent out in February. Less than a month later, 25 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera are already paid-up members – this is about 45% of the total. The list of the members currently is as follows:

• Berkeley Square
• Beverley Heights
• Bolton Hall
• Brenthurst Court
• Christina Court
• Dumbarton Oaks
• Earl’s Court
• Gleneagles
• Hampshire House
• Hampshire Mews
• Highbury
• Hillside Village
• Hyde Court
• Killarney Court and Gardens
• Killarney Hills
• Killarney Park
• Killarney Village
• Knightsbridge
• La Camargue
• Monviso
• Rapallo
• Riviera Mansions
• Riviera Villas
• Splice
• Whitehall Court

We thank all these bodies corporate for your on-going support, and we also thank all the various individual people who make personal donations as well. This funding enables us to undertake various projects, for the benefit of us all.

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 Killarney Library, the “Night WALKR’s” walking groups, the Cleanup/Upliftment project, and the Community Food Gardens Project.

If you have any specific ideas and 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 our area, 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. You can find our website 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 18 March 2026. All residents, owners and employees in Killarney and Riviera are welcome to participate. 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/