NKRA Communique – July 2025

Hi everyone

We held our July NKRA public meeting via the internet on Wednesday 16 July 2025. The key issues arising from that meeting are included in this newsletter. Our next NKRA public meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 20 August 2025. All residents, owners and employees of Killarney and Riviera are welcome to participate. An agenda with a Microsoft Teams meeting link will be circulated in due course.

We have received a rezoning application in Riviera, concerning the vacant stand in Spinney Close where a house was demolished a while ago to allow for a block of flats to be built. The flats project has been abandoned, and the ground now stands unused, but with large mounds of rubble. Illegal dumping has been taking place here, rats have been a problem, and homeless people sometimes camp here also. The sooner it is re-developed, the better for the area.

Some people have an idea to build a mosque and a school (madrassa) on this site. There has always been a shul in Riviera, the Splice building is used partly for business purposes, there are offices along the Oxford Road boundary, and the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library is being built one block away, so Riviera is already a mixed-use suburb. Although a mosque would be a valuable asset for a big portion of our community, concerns have been raised that this is not the best site for it – in particular the serious traffic congestion if people park on the street. Main Road is not very wide, and it carries a lot of traffic, including large vehicles. Spinney Close is very narrow, and parking in this road will make things very difficult for the residents. Other concerns raised include potential extra noise. We await further clarity.

The Friends of the Killarney Library

The Friends of the Killarney Library held a book sale at the Killarney Mall on 4-5 July, to raise funds for the upliftment of our Killarney branch of the Johannesburg Public Library. The sale was a tremendous success, and it raised over R35,000 from sales and donations. We offer congratulations, and thanks, to the Friends on this amazing achievement!

We will be holding further book-sales in the future, possibly in the Spring, and so we are again asking for additional books of all kinds to be donated please. You can hand donations in to the librarian during office hours, or you can deposit them through the book-return slot in the front door of the library if the library is closed.

To become a member of the library is free. The Friends of the Killarney Library are looking for more volunteers to help with this valuable initiative, and you can join their WhatsApp group at https://chat.whatsapp.com/KrYlArsPHSRAiyoGHerC0s

Street Repairs

The Johannesburg Roads Association (JRA) finally fixed some of the potholes in 2^nd Ave and 2^nd Street and 5^th Street. However, they have not fixed everything that needed fixing, so when it starts to rain again, the potholes will rapidly grow back. This work has happened largely because of the diligent reporting and pleading by residents, over months and years. There are still many other potholes and excavations around Killarney and Riviera, so we need to all continue reporting them. The NKRA has money ready to do road repairs, but we have been blocked by the JRA. The destroyed crash-barrier in Oxford Road, on the pavement outside the premises of Moore Accountants, has not yet been repaired, even though Moore Accountants have offered to do the repair at their own expense. Ward Councillor Huggett is still trying to find a JRA official who is willing to authorise our repairs. It was suggested to request the JRA to send a JRA engineer to supervise our work on the day, so as to ensure that all the work is done to their specifications.

We have heard that the Johannesburg Roads Association (JRA) is planning to modify the illegal taxi-stopping area in Oxford Road, to somehow smooth the traffic flow. The JRA also plans to adjust the timing of the traffic lights to allow pedestrians more time to cross Oxford Road, so that they do not get stranded on the central traffic island between changes of the lights. Our request for traffic cameras to deter cars jumping the red lights, must be referred to the JMPD. The suggestion to create a turning lane from Riviera Road south into Oxford Road, will not be possible because the pavement is not wide enough. Ward Councillor Huggett will ask the JMPD to monitor racing on Oxford Road and Riviera Road as well.

Upliftment Projects

During July, the Upliftment Team repaired two of the water repair excavations in the 4^th Ave pavement, at the bridge. These are simple and cheap repairs which are easily undone and restored if the municipality needs to reopen the excavations to do further work. However, they make the area look very much better than before. Many thanks to these residents. The Christina Court Body Corporate donated money toward the cost of these pavement repairs, and we thank them for their contribution as well.

It is unlikely that we will get municipal permission to do mass street repairs anytime soon, so it has been suggested that the NKRA should use some of our money to do extensive pavement repairs instead. We will discuss this at future meetings.

The Upliftment Team have managed to obtain the donation of a large Clearvu fence to replace the stolen palisade fence along the back of Anerley Park, namely the long stretch along the motorway embankment. Many thanks to the Team for this excellent contribution!

The project to repair the Riviera Road pavement is still in progress. However, it was noted that recently the municipality did undertake some repairs to the traffic-lights at the Oxford Road corner, and in the process they dug up the paving repairs which had been done on the pavement in that corner. It has been agreed that all future pavement repairs should be done using bricks or stones or pavers, as far as possible, so that the surface can be more easily repaired when additional excavations are made in the future.

Residents are requested to note and report any streetlights which are no longer working.

These Upliftment projects add a huge amount of value to the area. Themba Mhlope visits Killarney every Wednesday to clear the accumulated pavement rubbish, and every Saturday to do other upliftment projects, such as repairing pavements, clearing weeds and filling potholes with rubble, etc. However we need more residents to volunteer please to guide and supervise Themba and his work. If you have suggestions for future upliftment projects, or are willing to help, please join in at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KA4ejvnpF6pGjFg9SJ3KEn.

The NKRA Community Gardens Project

The Community Gardeners have created a Seed Library, which is held at the Killarney Library, to provide seeds to new gardeners. All aspirant gardeners are welcome to visit and to take out some seeds. Successful gardeners are asked to deposit some of their own seeds into the Seed Library, to keep the project going. The spring seeds are ready, and will be planted soon.

The Community Gardening Team are still fundraising to build raised beds to extend the vegetable-growing area. These raised beds will cost R500 each to build. A lot of funding has been donated already, and the construction has started – assisted by some Parktown Boys High School scholars as part of their community service initiative.

There has also been a proposal to repaint the boundary wall in the area of the veggie garden, with a suitable mural. Funding for this has been promised by the Killarney Mall. An artist is working on some designs, which will be shared with the community shortly for residents to offer comments and suggestions.

The Community Gardeners meet in the park on the last Sunday on every month. Bring a picnic along, and enjoy fresh air, good company and good conversation. Please contact the team at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Cjh3eJl57pv1XcoQ7OEBj9, or on Instagram at this link.

The Community Night WALKR’s street walks

The Community Night WALKR’s street walks continue to be held, despite the unfriendly weather, and attendance is increasing now as the weather warms up. These community social walks add a lot of additional value simply by maintaining a visible presence on the street. There are now also daytime walks on Sundays, which have been more popular. You can join in at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/DsR92XsjIU49JLvv1pAHCI

Safety and Security project

Our representative for the Hillbrow Community Policing Forum, has been taken out of town for the rest of the year by his business commitments. We are struggling to find a volunteer to take his place. These meetings take place monthly, at the Hillbrow Police Station. If anybody is willing to take on this role, please do contact us urgently.

The problem of illegal hawkers, and illegal drinking on pavements, is still a problem. The risk of cell-phone snatching on pavements, and pick-pockets, also continues, with Uber customers being the prime target. We continue to ask all buildings to warn their residents and visitors of these risks, and to place a security guard outside on the pavement whenever a resident or visitor is waiting to be collected.

We hear about these crimes regularly, but it seems that many victims don’t bother to report phone-snatching crimes. These crimes are therefore possibly not reflected accurately in the police data, and so the police reaction is perhaps less enthusiastic than the crimes probably require. We need to encourage victims of all crimes to report these crimes to the police.

In many cases, the private security guards on the pavements don’t react to crimes outside their immediate area of responsibility. While this is understandable, it would be much better for the suburb if the guards were more proactive out on the streets. It has been suggested to co-ordinate the various security companies on WhatsApp, and to ask our security companies to communicate with each other directly. Another way to achieve this outcome is to create additional security street patrol projects, such as has been done before, but this requires a lot of money, and most buildings have not been willing thus far to participate. We cannot boom off Killarney, because the municipal regulations are too restrictive, and our roads carry too much non-residential traffic – including commuters, and shoppers going to the Mall, etc.

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 010 972 2600, or on 061 071 2001. The two Vision Tactical response vehicles are on 072 830 5305, and on 071 570 5173. We thank Vision Tactical for this community-minded service.

Water Outages

Our water pipes and infrastructure are clearly at the end of their life, and burst pipes are happening more frequently. Sometimes we get a warning that the water is going off, but often the water pressure suddenly disappears without any warning at all. While we are happy that the pipes are actually being repaired, the absence of drinking water for days at a time is obviously very problematic for residents. Water tankers do sometimes come around to assist us, but they don’t always come to Killarney, and when they do, carrying water for a distance is difficult and impractical for many residents. We therefore continue to advise all buildings to create an internal reserve of drinking water, using large jojo tanks on the common property. We also advise all households to store water inside your homes – using 2-liter bottles or 5-liter bottles. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Taxi Rank Project

The Killarney Mall is officially for sale. The current owners have therefore halted their long-awaited refurbishment project, and we will have to wait for the new owners to take control before we will see any progress with creating a taxi facility. The new owners will probably start over again with their own ideas and experts. The identity of the prospective buyer is still confidential, in terms of a non-disclosure agreement. The NKRA meeting resolved to increase our pressure on the Council to enforce their regulations on taxi facilities. It was also agreed to attempt to involve the media, in order to put additional pressure on the Council to act. Municipal officials are constantly changing, so our Ward Councillor will identify the current municipal officials responsible for these matters.

Pensioner Municipal Rates Rebates

These rebates apply only to SA citizens & permanent residents. You must go in person to a walk-in centre with all your forms and documents. You cannot apply via email. There are two age categories, as follows:

* Age 60-69:

Pensioners must own the property and personally occupy the property. If you qualify, the first R1.5 million of your municipal property valuation is zero rated. You only pay the rates on the portion of the value above R1.5 million. Pensioners and co-owners whose monthly income falls below R12,475 qualify for 100% rebate on successful application. Pensioners and co-owners whose monthly income is above R12,475 but less than R21,383 qualify for 50% rebate on successful application. If the pensioner and co-owners’ monthly income is above R21,383, they will not qualify for a rebate. The rebate can be claimed for one property only. You can obtain the details and forms at https://eservices.joburg.org.za/SiteAssets1/COJ-Forms/60-69%20Pensioner%20Rebate.pdf

* Age 70+:

Pensioners must own the property and personally occupy the property. If you qualify, the first R2 million of your municipal property valuation is zero rated. You only pay the rates on the portion of the value above R2 million. The pensioner will qualify for a 100% rebate on rates, irrespective of income, up to a market value of R2 million, on successful application. The rebate can be claimed for one property only. You can obtain the details and the forms at https://eservices.joburg.org.za/SiteAssets1/COJ-Forms/70%20pensioner%20Rebate.pdf

Membership

“Membership” of the NKRA is voluntary, but for residential buildings it requires an annual membership “subscription” of R50 per each unit in the building (with a maximum of R4,000 per building). In the case of businesses, we request a flat amount of R4,000 per annum. 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.  If your trustees have changed since last year, please would you let us have the contact details of the current trustees.

So far 33 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera have paid their 2025 subscriptions – this is about 60% of the total. The list of the members so far is as follows:

• Berkeley Square
• Beverley Heights
• Biarritz
• Bolton Hall
• Brenthurst Court
• Bretton Woods
• Canterbury Close
• Castlerosse
• Chelston Hall
• Christina Court
• Cranwell Hall
• Daventry Court
• Devon Place
• Dumbarton Oaks
• Earl’s Court
• Gleneagles
• Glenhof Gardens
• Greenhills
• Hampshire House
• Hampshire Mews
• Highbury
• Hyde Court
• Killarney Village
• Knightsbridge
• Monviso
• Park Avenue
• Portofino
• Rapallo
• Riviera Mansions
• Riviera Villas
• Sloane Square
• Splice
• The Rivieras

We thank all these buildings 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 motto of the NKRA is “Safer, Cleaner, Better, Greener”. If you have any specific ideas and suggestions to help us implement this vision, please do share them urgently. Otherwise, our primary focuses for 2025 will continue to be as follows:

• Managing the squatter and hawker and taxi and street-drinking problems in Killarney;
• Reducing the various crime risks, including specifically the risk of pickpockets and phone-snatching on the pavements, and improving the street-lighting;
• Building up and sustaining the “Night WALKR’s” social walking group;
• Expanding the Community Gardens Project to grow food for persons in need;
• Undertaking small upliftment projects where possible, including cleaning and beautifying the pavements and other visible public spaces, expanding the existing Themba Upliftment Projects with additional fundraising, and improving relationships with the trolley-recyclers.

We are happy to receive photographs of interesting things that might be happening in our area, which we might include in future newsletters. We also welcome all inputs, on all issues. All interested persons can contact us at wdford@global.co.za to be added to the mailing list. Our website is at www.nkra.org.za.

Our next public meeting will be held at 18h30 on Wednesday 20 August 2025. All owners and residents of 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. J

.

City emergency hotline on 011 375 5911

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

To report a water leak: 24-hour hotline – 0860 562 874 or 011 688 1699

To report a water leak: fault@jwater.co.zaTo report an electrical fault: Citypower.mobi ?