NKRA Communique – June 2026

Hi everyone

The most recent NKRA monthly general meeting was held via internet on 17 June 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 15 July 2026. All 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 pavement repair projects continue. These projects aim only to improve safety for the pedestrians, and we do not try to restore the pavement to its original new condition. In addition to the work done on the pavements of 4^th Avenue, 7^th Street and Newtown Avenue, work has also recently been undertaken on the pavement of Riviera Road outside Martindale Mews, where the pavement appears to be subsiding. We will need to monitor this stretch. Charles and his team also did substantial work along the Riviera Road southern pavement outside Killarney Court, and outside Mentone Court.

We have also done some work on the northern pavement of 3^rd Street, where City Power dug a long trench to lay a new cable, but has not yet reinstated the pavement. We tried to clear some of the mounds of mud and stones along the edge of the pavement furthest from the road, to create at least one clear and safe walkway for pedestrians. We are still waiting for the City Power entity to return and finish the reinstatement.

The Thabo Mbeki Foundation, which is busy building the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Centre in North Avenue in Riviera, has committed to make their contractors available to assist with pavement repairs, at their expense. Charles has met with them, and they have undertaken to start work soon. We have asked them to start by repairing the tarred sections outside Hatherley Hall, Killarney Wilds, Gleneagles and Dukes Court, because we struggle to repair large stretches of asphalt pavement without the proper equipment.

When we do finally get municipal permission to fix the potholes in the roads as well, we will include that work into this project. Meanwhile, we will continue temporarily backfilling some of the most dangerous holes in the streets with sand and rubble, to make them a bit safer. Whatever we do on the streets must be easily removable, so that when the JRA comes to do proper repairs, they can remove our work quickly and easily.

The pavement rubbish bin at 3^rd Street corner 4^th Avenue was being tipped over repeatedly, to prevent people putting rubbish in the bin. The security guards in that vicinity told us that the PikiTup sweepers were doing this – because some domestic helpers were regularly putting bags of domestic rubbish into this bin on their way home, and this often included rotting food and soiled nappies, among other things. The bin was eventually damaged, and PikiTup has now removed it from this corner. All our other pavement bins are functioning normally, so we will now make a different plan for this corner.

Community upliftment projects

Ultimately, protecting our safety, safeguarding our property values and improving our local environment is our shared responsibility. We all share the roads and the pavements and the streetlights etc, and if we have deteriorating infrastructure in some parts of the area, then the entire area will suffer. While most buildings make substantial individual contributions to their immediate surroundings, we also need to address some challenges across the general neighbourhood – and specifically in those areas that are not immediately adjacent to any building. That is a big focus of the NKRA.

In practice, this simply requires us to reach some agreement on the various small issues that we can actually fix by ourselves, then gather the resources and the volunteers required, and implement small but meaningful actions. Many buildings pay membership fees to the NKRA, so some funding is available. All buildings have gardening staff and/or maintenance staff, and some tools and equipment. All buildings are run by trustees who are community-minded volunteers, and all buildings have a few residents with skills and time and community spirit.

A dedicated coordination group has recently been established for trustees and caretakers in the “Upper Killarney” area (south of the M1 motorway,) to collectively address the security, greening and maintenance of this area. We look forward to seeing this initiative develop momentum. If you live in 7^th Street, 8^th Street, 9^th Street, 10^th Street or 3^rd Avenue, and you would like to participate in these projects, please contact your trustees and volunteer.

The boundary wall of Martindale Mews, in 1^st Street, was pushed over by a large tree a few years ago. It was patched by the owner with some corrugated iron sheets, which were very unsightly. The owner is now undertaking proper repairs, and 1^st Street is looking much better as a result. We encourage all buildings to take good care of your visible exteriors – this makes a huge difference to the overall appearance of your building, and of our suburb.

We will be holding another community clean-up day on 11 July, on the pavement area around the intersection of Joe Slovo Drive and Newtown Avenue, and alongside the motorway onramp of the M1N. We are asking for interested residents to come out on the day to assist. In addition, we will be hiring a skip and some extra workers. We have also asked for a JMPD presence, as well as support from Vision Tactical security.

Municipal Repairs

The JRA have not done any more pothole repairs for us since our last meeting, although they continually promise that more repairs have been scheduled. They are still refusing to allow us to fix our roads ourselves, although we continue to lodge requests to do repairs, and we have also offered to assist them with resources. However, we can still backfill serious holes with easily removable sand and rubble, to reduce the danger to cars, scooters and bicycles. Please would all residents continue to report the various serious 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. In addition, if anybody is a client of Discovery Insurance, please would you request that the Discovery Pothole Patrol help us by making repairs to these potholes as well.

The municipality has fixed the serious water leak in Anerley Road, but they have left a deep hole, which is a hazard to pedestrians. Other serious leaks continue at the corner of Riviera Road and Oxford Road, on the Bretton Woods pavement and the adjacent sinkhole in 4^th Avenue, and various other places. There are at least 12 cases which we report regularly, with very little response from Joburg Water. A lot of clean drinking water is being lost from these leaks. Please would all residents help by regularly reporting water leaks on the Joburg Water Portal at https://customer.forcelink.net/joburg_water/login, and please share the reference numbers with us at https://chat.whatsapp.com/Kr3eNByVWIDFzmfO1FIlwp. Please attach photos and videos with your reports, if possible.

Some municipal trees on the motorway embankment have damaged the concrete security fence along the Newtown Avenue northern pavement. The JRA have now trimmed their trees, and the NKRA is busy arranging for an updated quote for contractors to repair the fence. We can estimate that the cost will be around R12,000 or so.

Safety and Security focuses

We are still researching options to combat phone snatching on pavements, especially near the corner of 3^rd Street and 4^th Avenue. Meanwhile, we continue to ask all buildings to warn their residents and visitors not to stand on the pavement or walk in the street with a phone or valuables in their hands.

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 a WhatsApp tipoff line, at 078 221 0419, for reporting contraventions of by-laws, including noise and disturbances, drinking, illegal parking etc. You need to report by-law contraventions while the problem is in progress – it doesn’t help to report it later when the problem has already disappeared. Please include full details of the problem, and the exact location. Photographic or video evidence is also very useful.

In addition, our ward councillor Eleanor Huggett can and will 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, 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 if possible.

Killarney Mall taxi rank and refurbishment progress

The Killarney Mall continues to address the various suspensive conditions which are delaying the transfer of ownership to the new owners. They have told us that we should not expect to see much refurbishment progress until the end of the year.

The Themba Cleanup/Upliftment Projects

Themba continues to do valuable work. We are grateful for the dedicated donations that are made by various people to support this initiative. You can interact with this project team at: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KA4ejvnpF6pGjFg9SJ3KEn.

Killarney-Riviera Recycling Pilot Project

To help the “trolley-reclaimers” sort out and recycle any recyclable materials in our domestic refuse, the Killarney-Riviera Recycling Project has been established in partnership with ARO (African Reclaimers Organisation). You can interact with the pilot Killarney-Riviera Recycling Project at https://chat.whatsapp.com/L1IlY4t9C837nVxp5oD8QW.

The Friends of the Library – Killarney

Visit https://chat.whatsapp.com/KrYlArsPHSRAiyoGHerC0s to interact with The Friends of the Library in Killarney (FOLK), and to get details about their various events at the library.

The Community Gardens project

Visit https://chat.whatsapp.com/Cjh3eJl57pv1XcoQ7OEBj9 to interact with the community food garden project.

The community street walks

Visit https://chat.whatsapp.com/CGOgiBZSRmhDNTq5BVdccU?mode=wwt for the details of the community evening street walks.

Killarney Parkrun

Visit  https://www.parkrun.co.za/killarneycountryclub/ for the details of the Killarney Country Club Parkrun.

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”. The membership “subscription” is R50 per annum per each unit in the building (with a maximum charge of R4,000 per building). Only the representatives of the member bodies corporate can vote on resolutions, but all property owners, residents and employees of the buildings and businesses in the suburbs of Killarney and Riviera are welcome to attend and participate in our public meetings. 

So far this year, 37 buildings out of the 55 sectional title buildings in Killarney-Riviera are paid-up members – this is about 67% of the total. The list of the members currently is as follows:

• Berkeley Square
• Beverley Heights
• Biarritz
• Bolton Hall
• Brenthurst Court
• Bretton Woods
• 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
• Hillside Village
• Hyde Court
• Killarney Court and Gardens
• Killarney Hills
• Killarney Park
• Killarney Village
• Knightsbridge
• La Camargue
• Monviso
• Park Avenue
• Rapallo
• Riviera Mansions
• Riviera Villas
• Splice
• St John’s Wood
• The Rivieras
• Whitehall Court

We thank all these bodies corporate for your on-going support. We also thank all the buildings and individual residents who make additional donations to our various projects as well. This funding enables us to undertake small upliftment 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 Cleanup/Upliftment project, the Killarney Library, the community food gardens project, and the community walking groups.

If you have any specific 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 15 July 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/