CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2006 – 2007

31ST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MAY 2007

Thank you Peter [Peter Heritage, Acting Chairman]

1. Security

Unfortunately we all know that this has become almost the biggest priority in our lives. When it goes wrong - which has been the case over the last year - it can affect the lives of people close to you (virtually all of us have been touched by this unwanted visitor) and at the same time can also effect the value of property and, of course, your own comfort zone and security that most normal people look for in their own homes – for themselves and their families. This is not peculiar to Craighall and Craighall Park but it is a national problem and seemingly at its worst in Johannesburg and environs – but like all of you I am getting bad vibes from places like Cape Town, P.E, and Durban – as things change in these communities as well.

As requested at last year’s AGM in June, we have put together a crime program which has been up and running since March 5th and although it needs fine tuning it has begun to address our problems (for example I was accosted last Saturday in daylight on my own property and our special vehicle reacted within 2 minutes – followed quickly by the South African Police).  

We have entered into a marketing partnership with ADT and SAS in order to concentrate on a setup that allows us to come to grips with the problems that are peculiar to our area. The objective is to stop the crime before it happens. As the police are a very important part of this project we have kept Senior Superintendent Moodley in the picture asking for the support and cooperation of the Police with the security companies. The details of the program itself are by now well-known to the residents but there is one thing that is different from others and that is we (the CRA) have entered the partnership on the basis that we hope to help manage the security companies efforts in conjunction with the police and hold monthly meetings between the CRA, ADT and SAS.  

We are hoping that the police and security companies will concentrate more on suspicious looking characters that are wandering around our streets. We appreciate that people have the right to walk and drive in our suburb but if questioned they would obviously need to have a reason for being there. We will be analysing information provided by the security companies to ensure cooperation in major functions like dedicated vehicles being where they should be 24/7.  

We need more help from you to help make this project work properly – if we don’t we won’t realise the cover that is necessary. Expensive perhaps (an extra R182.00 per month) – but I notice a tracker company currently advertising a tracker unit for your own car at R230.00 per month – and this is an established company – but to me it hardly competes with what we are talking about providing i.e. four dedicated units in Craighall Park and 2 in Craighall – a direct cell line for contributors to a vehicle in each suburb for emergencies and other fringe benefits – such as valet service, meeting members at their gates etc. - without trying to be snide, you can compare that to a pretty good meal at your local restaurant (with booze) – it’s all relative! It obviously depends on where your priorities lie. 

We currently have 2 dedicated vehicles in each suburb – with 2 to come in Craighall Park - which would then reflect the number of residents/participants in the 2 suburbs.

We still have a way to go and for those who haven’t yet supported us, we need your help now. We felt, however, with crime as it is we must get going with the funds we have already accumulated- but we need at least over 100 more contributors to warrant the next vehicle.  

At this time I would like to thank Mike Holgate for some of the hard yards that he put in to this crime prevention program, helping to get it off the ground. You may know as well that SAS/top security has dedicated vehicles in both Craighall and Craighall Park. In the latter they chose to give us a free vehicle and depend on their own marketing to drive up their business - the black VW has done very well for us over the past few months. 

We all know that town planning issues and excessive density development is rampant in both suburbs. This is to be expected in a city such as ours that is experiencing tremendous growth. In conjunction with this is the policy question of density (which can become a political issue where we must understand that additional housing is required to accommodate this growth and we cannot exclude ourselves from this whirl wind). Additional housing for the poor should be the concentration here but in the case of our suburbs this is mostly not the case and turns out to be – it’s more houses for the rich and profit for developers… 

In this regard Lee Whitfield and her colleagues (Dr Roly Meyer and Bianca de Roland Philips) together with Craig Pretorius - our town planner - have put together a submission to the City Council which looks like being approved next month. This submission recognizes what was expressed by our residents in an open meeting and in responses to a questionnaire circulated last year. This applies to both Craighall Park and Craighall – although sub divisions in Craighall can be slightly bigger due to the bigger stands in that suburb. 

The CRA has recently been advised that the city of Johannesburg gives it technical support to the proposed plan subject to minor amendments. These amendments have been discussed with the Council by Craig Pretorius and the only significant amendment is that a reduction in the minimum stand size to be permitted on sub division is 800sq meters for both Craighall and Craighall Park. However the council is still supportive of a density of 10 units per hectare that the CRA proposed. Completion of this exercise of a “community submission” to the municipality should be finalised during the next 2 to 3 months. This document, although expensive, is extremely important for the protection of Craighall and Craighall Park in so far as the future development of the suburbs is concerned. Further details can be obtained from the town planning portfolio if required.

Paulette Malcolm has been wrestling with the community problems which can best be expressed as those to do with the Spruit and what we might call the inner workings of Craighall and Craighall Park. The subject of cleanliness, health, appearances and practical issues to be dealt with have come more and more to the fore.As an example, when we call for the picking up of vagrants by the police we need to extend the discussion to “what do we do with these vagrants when they have been picked up”? Let me tell you this is not an easy subject and as I am sure you know, covers social overtones as well as criminal activity. To use an old North American adage, “the height of insanity is doing things the same old way and hoping for a different result.” 

This is a tough subject that Peter Heritage has been keen to get on with and in fact he has been making headway in certain areas which have become major problems. This has got to do with conditions of roads, traffic circles, solid white lines (that only sometimes you can see), illegal parking, speeding and a myriad of other issues that the simple word “traffic” infers. 

1. Finance

The treasurer will give you the numbers later on in the agenda but in essence we are in reasonably good shape. However, as I have said before we need to keep our funding ability at a decent level if we want the Association do what the residents require. At the moment we have set the membership fee at R220.00 per annum – which is much less than other rate payers associations – but it is pitched this way to encourage a higher members.

We have involved ourselves in a debit order procedure with First National Bank which has to do with the security project and which is run by volunteers in the Association to make sure we know exactly where we are at any point in time in relation to understandings with the security companies.  

Heidi Kerwan will be talking to you in a few minutes regarding the financial situation for the past year. I feel that members would like to understand that she has just been through a tough time in her life in that her father died as a result of criminals entering their property in Ladysmith, Natal and as a result she has not had the time which she would like to have had, to concentrate on the financial portfolio. Lee Whitfield, who is also a charted accountant, has been assisting Heidi during this difficult time. In addition Heidi has taken on a senior job in a local company which all adds up to the fact that we are looking seriously for someone with the proper background to take over from Heidi – an important function.

2. Membership

The name Jill Weldon is well-known to the residents of the two suburbs in terms of all the work she has been doing with regards to the data base and subsequent communication with the residents over the past 5 years. This is an invaluable function within the Association – in fact this is our life blood. She has also found that in this coming year she needs to step down to attend to other things in her life. 

3. Community affairs

In this regard Jess Gallo was running the portfolio until the end of last year and as happens in these sort of voluntary jobs she has also had to stand down because of the pressure of work. She and Russ Smith took on the portfolio and Russ continues with the responsibility but also needs much more support so we can achieve our objectives. This subject embraces the street reps (of which we have 40) on whom we depend on 4/5 times a year to convey what’s going on in the CRA to residents through the medium of the Crier – and who may not have an email address. Russ is looking for an area rep in Craighall and also there are a couple of vacancies for street reps in both suburbs. 

4. Communications

Wendy McAllister has brought a new meaning to this subject on behalf of the residents. The website that she has set up plus her recent work on the data base allows us to communicate more efficiently with residents which is a big part of our job.I believe that she now has almost 800 e-mails of residents which provides a meaningful communication cover and she has also put together the CRA website – which I might say – is as good as you will see anywhere (I even tried it out on my cousin in Montreal and he is usually ill-disposed to compliment anything of this sort other than his own) and he gave it top marks. Use it, it can work for you. 

You can see all through my report we will be anxious to replace some off the people that are leaving and in addition those that can assist us with new projects. Peter has already emphasised the fact that you need a new Chairman, and explained to you that in the meantime the Chairmanship will be handled on a rotation basis within the executive until a new person has been found. On top of that we badly need a new treasurer, someone to run the membership portfolio, someone to support community affairs, additional people who can handle part of the security portfolio and some more muscle in the environmental portfolio.  

We would like you to contact any members of the committee if you are in any way in a position to make a time contribution – or better still do it tonight. 

As far as I am concerned, I have enjoyed working with the various people I have come to know over the years, who have supported me and the executive, and to residents who from time to time have given me in no uncertain terms what they feel about things but pretty well always in good humour. 

I must mention that we haven’t made much headway in terms of encouraging residents of different cultural backgrounds to join the association - this is important to me as we have had many new comers join us in the 2 suburbs and we need to know how everyone feels about things after living for a while in our area. I am sure the incoming executive will give this subject further attention during this coming year. 

I believe I am leaving the Association in good shape in terms of hard-working volunteers and a financial situation that should put you in a position to move ahead. Be innovative, and new ideas will come forward and this in itself will make the residents who are involved enjoy making a contribution towards the suburbs. Obstacles? - you will definitely be confronted with - and perhaps more far reaching than they are at the moment. 

Thank you once again - it has been fun working with you and for you. 

Best Regards

John Turpin (Chairman)