CHAIRMAN'S REPORT 2002 - 2003

Annual General Meeting - May 2003

Dear Fellow Residents

As I said to you last year the Residents' Association is "the only game in town" in terms of reaching the authorities. If anything this statement has become more valid in terms of the problems that we are encountering in our community from day to day.

Sadly as an individual you don't stand much of a chance of trying to negotiate your way through the minefield by yourself. We as an Association have some status in the structure. But we are confronted with an enormous quagmire of administrative ineptness and bungling which is hurting and even in some cases frightening our residents and taxpayers. Witness the electricity, water problems that I hear about daily where people after months of writing letters and making telephone calls eventually succumb and pay monies that they don't owe under threat of being cut off from one service or another. What you read in the press doesn't make you feel any better either in terms of write offs (R billions) of collections that the city is unable to make but still carries in its books. When you add that to plus/minus 13% increases in rates and taxes, what you are really doing is funding fantasies - a frightening situation.

The ammunition that we have to overcome these problems is in some ways limited to nagging away at the appropriate authorities even to the point of embarrassing them through the press. At least we're not down to parading in the streets with placards yet - but we've been close. There are people who are on our side (such as our Councillor's office) where certain improvements have been made such as the facility in Sandton "the People's Centre" and a new meter reading company which seems to offer some assurances. I can assure you however that the frustrations in dealing with the authorities continue to grow in my opinion where you almost get to the point where you feel that as taxpayers we virtually are being thrown to the wolves - and my experience being from living in the far north for a large piece of my life is that wolves don't give back what they've taken - not easily, not ever!

The question of safeguarding our communities and subsequently your own properties and homes is all wrapped up in subjects such as security, reputation and appearance of your suburbs and the general efficiency of the various services that you as a tax payer would ordinarily expect. Some of these items are in place but many are not and it's our job as your Association to right the wrongs wherever we can. I am sure most residents understand that the value of our properties in both suburbs over the past year has escalated significantly and therefore becomes an asset well worth protecting not only financially but with the time we should devote to our suburbs.

To cope with all this, we have set up an organisation that consists of 20 voluntary people on your executive committee and 45 voluntary people handling distribution in your various streets - by name of street representative. From the municipal and governmental side of things the issues that we discussed last year are still there (road closures and crime etc) and hopefully we are geared up to cope with some of these on your behalf. Millions have been spent on upgrading systems (the Call Centre) and admin but the major problems worsen that is - you find out who the right contact is - you phone, leave a message, or get a reference number and that's it for the day. You think you've done your job but nothing happens - and that's the major frustration faced by your Association.

We decided that we would set up our organisation to cope with all of these problems on a portfolio basis. Your CRA Committee for the past year consisted of the following people with their portfolios and responsibilities:

I would like to thank the members of the Executive Committee for the free time that they have given to your association in an effort to keep up the standards that we require for ourselves. I would also like to thank Judy Stockill, our hardworking and approachable City Councillor, who brings a lot to the meetings and to the community and may it continue. Fran Haslam, the Chairlady of the Parkview Police Forum who contributes big time in keeping us up to date with the crime situation in the two suburbs and also advises us in terms of how the police would like us to assist - which we then discuss relative to our budget. A big vote of thanks to Kevin Shenton who gratuitously provides us with the layout for the Crier and in addition Dick Welch who gives us the printing for various activities that we undertake at a nominal fee. As well, I would like to welcome Lara De Mates from the Rosebank Gazette who we depend on in many instances to communicate with our residents in their publication.. In addition we have area representatives liasing with our residents through approximately 45 street representatives. To all of my committee and street representatives many thanks for your efforts over the past months.

It may look as though we've got all the numbers and skills that we require but some of us are doing double duty and we would welcome people from the community who are prepared to help most particularly in the areas of treasury, security and environment.

The organisation works quite simply and we have set this out in the recent Crier. Using the example of street lights which you might think is a rather mundane job - on the contrary it's vital to the Parkview police in their efforts to apprehend criminals and in the second instance is a turnoff for the criminals themselves. In this example street lights are looked after by Margaret Stewart and one of her jobs in Security is to identify the problem (this means driving through the suburbs at night) and then get City Power to do something about it. And so we break down the major problems by portfolio but this year we have now managed to break down the individual problems within those portfolios as I said earlier the suburbs have come to the party and many people have volunteered to help - which is just great. Now, what's the point of all this - the point is simply that we've got a structure and system in place, now it's up to you the resident to use it.

1. Security

The crime situation in our suburbs, although less than others surrounding us, still is a major negative factor which we need to continue to address. We have continued to support the Parkview Police under Superintendent Loubser and from my point of view we are fortunate to have such an efficient and dedicated force looking after us. Recognising that Parkview are often confronted with a lack of resources to do the things they know they should do, we as an Association step up to contribute from time to time. In the last 4 months we have had 2 undercover projects which have provided more police presence in our suburbs and the results have been positive. These projects have been financially supported by your association. In addition the Parkview station have 30 to 40 more staff than they did this time last year.

We continue to support the Domestic Watch project in conjunction with the CPF and will continue to do so this year. It is vital that we receive the cooperation of the householders in allowing our domestics to attend these meetings as it benefits the whole community and the police in crime reduction. At this moment in time we need a coordinator for these monthly meetings in Craighall and would be most appreciative if someone would come forward on this subject.

The question of road closures (past and future) has been thoroughly aired in meetings and the press and we're now in a position to determine which way we are allowed to proceed in terms of development of road closures in the future. The policy that the Mayor's office has issued I believe is a fairly balanced if not stringent one and looks after the interests of most of the people concerned. Your Association will be diligent in making their feelings felt if applications for road closures in the suburbs were felt to be unfairly restrictive to our residents for any reasons not obvious in the applications.

I have been active in discussions with 'Business against Crime' regarding a possible surveillance project (cameras, reaction, monitoring and administration etc) together with the Hyde Park Residents Association and Parkmore. In addition we are consulting with the police, security companies and the ECR (in our case Hyprop) to formulate this project. So far our findings are proving costly but feasible and thanks to Bruce Bowden we have had interesting input from his questionnaires setting out the feelings of a large number in our communities. We will keep you advised as to the outcome of this possible initiative.

We continue to lobby the Municipality regarding the possible lighting up of the spruit which continues to cause problems for the Police in terms of adequate patrolling. We are also investigating the fencing off of this area and will report back to you with our findings.

At this juncture I would like to thank Mike Prior who has been handling the Security portfolio during the past year but who has now sold his property in Craighall and is moving out to Bryanston. He is already been nailed by the Bryanston Ratepayers Association and our loss is their gain. For the time being at least I will be handling the Security portfolio in conjunction with Margaret Stewart and Jenny Howarth as I'm in no doubt that this will continue to be a priority issue in the foreseeable future.

Your Association is in reasonable financial health with the balance at the year end plus/minus R80 000.00 and to the end of March this has increased to R112 000.00. Membership continues to improve and we estimate our penetration in the available market to be about 20% in the 2 suburbs. This leaves much room for improvement (although this is good in relation to other associations). The membership portfolio has been strengthened for the coming year and will continue to concentrate on this subject alone. It must be understood with the problems we are facing (road closures, surveillance projects, police support, town planning developments, etc) that we need to place ourselves in a position where we can assist residents in achieving common objectives. Our acting Treasurer Lee Whitfield will speak in more detail on the numbers.

This is a major subject in terms of directly assisting our residents. As you can see from the Crier, it involves us with everything from parks and verges, to drinking water and sewerage and storm water, to signage (graffiti), rubble and noise. You can't believe how many phone calls we get regarding these subjects as obviously from time to time we as individuals are caught with these problems and don't know where to turn. As said earlier this portfolio has to do with keeping the image of Craighall and Craighall Park up to scratch. In addition the question of the Braamfontein spruit has a direct bearing on our residents as well.

We have beefed this portfolio up which now includes 3 active people who have to do with developing functions for residents, promotions and meetings such as this one here tonight. There are other responsibilities, namely coordinating the regional reps and street reps (which Judy Harding has been doing for some time but is now creeping into semi-retirement - thanks to her for doing all this hard work) which is vital in terms of communication between the association and its members. There is not much purpose in our deliberating at monthly executive meetings and making decisions on your behalf if we don't communicate this to you. We're getting there.

In this regard this portfolio ensures that various applications for property development, etc conforms with our LDO. In the past year we have received many requests from developers and residents who are interested in anything from cluster development to re-zoning etc and all these individual applications need to be monitored. We have also been involved with abandoned properties and most of these seem to have been resolved during the year. I refer specifically to such things as the Planet Fitness development on Jan Smuts, the ex REEA on Marlborough and the abandoned property on Westminster Avenue as examples. These are ongoing issues which have to do with preserving the value of our individual properties.

This has been a portfolio that has developed during the year and apart from the development and production of the Crier on a quarterly basis, it now issues a monthly electronic letter to members outlining the latest activities and problems which would be of interest to residents. This is interspersed with one-off letters which are considered urgent and need to be sent to residents to keep them up to date with such things as our crime protection programs etc..

At this moment we are currently developing a Craighall / Craighall Park website which I'm sure residents would be interested in and we are hopeful this would complement the other forms of communication which we already have. Two residents Mr. & Mrs. Malan, both fundis on the subject, have agreed to put this together with Wendy McAllister. This subject is all about letting people know what is going on in an efficient manner as possible but we must ensure that when it is set up it will be used. This means proper marketing etc.

This area has also been beefed up considerably as we feel we have much room for improvement and this really is the life blood of the Association. Without strong membership we have no reason to exist and without the Association our residents have very little to turn to when confronted by individual problems.

We have managed to collect a significant number of e-mail addresses (thanks to Jill Weldon) and this allows us to develop and maintain a database that will serve the Association well in the future. When asked for your e-mail address, please understand that this will be kept confidential to the activities of the Association and will be used only when necessary.

Last but not least is the portfolio which has a significant effect on the lives of our citizens both for the good and the bad. We are confronted with problems such as taxis taking unauthorised routes, the question of speeding in our suburbs and also the problem of rat running. Although we might think so, increased traffic is not a phenomenon peculiar to Craighall/Craighall Park but is true for all of greater Johannesburg and most cities in the world. Increased vehicle population is a matter of fact. The question of alleviating speeding in our suburbs usually boils down to the installation of speed humps and traffic islands. To help residents we deal with the Johannesburg Road Agency who up till now has under performed in pursuing our various problems. There has been little evidence of traffic control within the suburbs by the JRA and in particular on Jan Smuts Avenue. We continue to persevere however as the JRA has been given the responsibility to get these things done in Greater Johannesburg.

The matter of road closures and security endeavours has also become a subject for the Traffic portfolio which is being energetically pursued by Bruce Bowden.

Now that I have set out for you how we are structured to confront the various problems, let me try and be positive in an atmosphere of continued negativity. There is no doubt that the biggest frustrations that your committee is confronted with is the question of communication with people "in the system" to get things done. There's the question of many phone calls and faxes and e-mails that go unanswered or often times people who are unable to answer the questions. Accepting this, there are certain things that come to the fore from time to time that gives your committee a shot of adrenalin and allows them to keep going forward and to pick up the challenges that we're given. With our new organisation we will do more of this in the year to come.

At last year's meeting I indicated to you that the new Constitution which was adopted in May 2002 allowed for the chairman to take on the job for 3 years and then give it up for at least one year (or more!) The next year for me should be the last one and we need to take action at this time to ensure that we have a vice-chairman who is prepared to go on with it. I have asked my committee to consider this as an urgent matter so that we can hopefully before the end of this year come up with a solution.

I would like to thank all of you who have attended and thanks for your support.

John Turpin
Chairman
May 2003