Come to the AGM; come and contribute to change in Emmarentia

Dear Residents

You are all invited to join us at ERA’s AGM on 9 October at 18h30 in the Pavilion Room at Marks Park.

Come and hear what we’ve done (very brief reports, you can look at them here)

Let’s discuss together what we should be doing, how we should do it and how you can help.

If you can’t attend the AGM, please write and let us know:

• What are the burning issues that ERA should be working on?
• How you can help drive these initiatives?

E-mail to info@era.org.za:

Come and listen to guest speaker and Emmarentia resident, Dr Ferrial Adam from WaterCAN delve into the water crisis and what we can do.

Help us build a shared vision of the Emmarentia of the future.

ERA AGM AGENDA, Marks Park, 18h30-20h00

1. Welcome and apologies

2. Adoption of the 2023 AGM Minutes

3. Chairperson’s report

• Finance
• Adopt a Park
• Building, Planning and Heritage
• Infrastructure
• Security
• Events
• Communications

4. Community engagement

5. How we may defeat our water pain forever: Guest speaker, Dr Ferrial Adam WaterCAN

6. Nominees and volunteers for ERA committees

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An interactive AGM

ERA Exco has been struggling to find a way to bring more people into ERA. At the beginning of September, Emmarentia resident and organisational development specialist, Christa Swart, volunteered to facilitate ERA Exco’s strategy session. She encouraged us to reflect on who, what and why ERA existed.

‘I’ve lived in Emmarentia for many years, but I have to confess that I don’t know what ERA does,’ she said. Yes, she’s on the Emmarentia whatsapp groups and that’s how she responded to our request for someone to facilitate our strategy session. And yes, she had also taken part in cleaning the park that ERA is in the process of adopting. But she’d never read an ERA newsletter and knew nothing else about the organisation.

Does this sound like your experience too?

Now is your chance. Come and join us at the AGM. Our chairperson, Ayanda Mjekula will give brief reports for all of us (read the full reports here).

Christa will be there too to facilitate and help us get your views so that together we can determine our priorities. And Emmarentia resident, Dr Ferrial Adam, will be there to give us an update on all things water.

Hope to see you there.

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‘Water, the bane of our lives’ — ERA chairperson

‘It is very painful to pay the same average bill for less water received and to be asked to use less water when you have not necessarily increased your consumption,’ says ERA chairperson, Ayanda Mjekula.

In a report to ERA’s upcoming AGM on October 9, he blames the so-called ‘excess demand’ on ‘extensive leakages, upward of 42%, and illegal connections.’

While noting that there has been a bit of a reprieve recently on the water and power fronts, he decries the fact that there is still ‘ad hoc deprivation of both water and electricity in certain households/areas’. No reasons have been given why some areas continue to receive no water at certain times of the day and why certain households regularly have no power.

He encourages all Emmarentia residents to join ERA so that together we can hold the municipality legally accountable.

Guest speaker at the AGM, Dr Ferrial Adam from WaterCAN will give us insights into what we can do to ease our current water crisis. 

See the Chairperson’s full report here and join us on 9 October.

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What’s inside this newsletter?

We give you a glimpse into what ERA has done over the past year:

* it’s just a year since ERA decided to ’Adopt a Park’- how far are we?

* ERA has been working hard with event organisers to try and lessen the impact of events on residents. Are we making any progress?

* making additions/alterations to your home must adhere to the law: hear what ERA does to keep residents talking to each other.

Our next newsletter will cover:

• decisions from the AGM
• we’ll peek behind the stone walls on Hill Road opposite Emmarentia Primary and give you some history
• And more…

We always welcome your stories. E-mail info@era.org.za or whatsapp Jenny on 072 348 0578

Editor

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Finances improve

ERA’s Treasurer, Brian Askew, continues to keep ERA’s finances in check. This past year ERA showed a small improvement in ‘profit’. Sadly it’s not because of an increase in income or membership (in fact membership has fallen since last year) but is largely due to the fact that our expenses have diminished.

We have a current membership of 35 households and given that there are more than 1500 households in Emmarentia, this is a very poor figure. Anyone want to offer to help increase our membership?

Our expenses have been fewer as we have saved money on the ERA newsletter through advertising/sponsorship. When this was not forthcoming we released an electronic version of the newsletter instead of printing it.

And we have not had to spend huge amounts fighting developers as we did with the large mixed-use development on Barry Hertzog/Gleneagles Road.

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Progress with Adopt a Park

Under the guidance of ERA’s Saber Manjoo, an extensive mapping and analysis of the area was undertaken. With the help of Zayne Shaikh who volunteered at last year’s AGM, assisted by Stuart Dunsmore, they put together a comprehensive plan. 

ERA met with City Parks who agreed that we could begin work while waiting for the formal adoption to be confirmed.

ERA’s Saber Manjoo organised a successful community clean-up on April 27, and since then has supervised the clearing of patches of invasive alien bushes and trees. Private companies donated their green teams while ERA and residents funded NPOs. If you’d like to donate, please pay:Emmarentia Residents Association, Nedbank; A/c: 1975051173; Branch Code: 198765, reference PARK.

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Coping with ageing infrastructure

We know that Emmarentia residents are active citizens. When it comes to reporting water leaks, sewerage leaks, power outages and such, Emmarentia comes tops. And with the help of Cllr Nicolene Jonker’s escalation efforts, we can ensure that failures are rectified as soon as possible. As an engineer, ERA’s Rob Cass is well-qualified to head this portfolio.

However, earlier this year when we suffered more than 10 days without water, reporting was not enough. ERA salutes the residents that gathered the community together to show the City what we were experiencing.

We need more actions like these to make ourselves heard. Sometimes the quality of the workmanship is poor and the contractors are repeatedly called back to rectify.

ERA is investigating how we can hold the City to account for its failure to deliver quality services.  

Building, planning and heritage—keeping things legal

Gemey Abrahams holds this portfolio, assisted by Bienfait Bula. They give crucial advice to residents wanting to extend/renovate their homes and assess and endorse building plans before residents submit to the City.

Gemey’s regular stories in ERA’s newsletter advise residents on building, title deeds and planning aspects—e.g. home offices, second dwellings, boreholes—so that they keep within the law.

Sadly some residents do not comply with the law so ERA assists and encourages residents to report seemingly illegal land uses to the authorities on complaintsleregionb@joburg.org.za  

Gemey and Exco member Mohamed Motala have also helped in situations where residents are in dispute with their neighbours.

‘Please talk to your neighbours before doing any renovation,’ Gemey advises. ‘It is their right to be consulted since they are living in close proximity to you.’

Almost all houses in Emmarentia are more than 60 years old – any renovation, alteration or addition must be approved by the Provincial Heritage Authority in Gauteng.

Gemey continues to provide the required letters and undertakes extensive research on each property to establish its heritage.

ERA proposes that this AGM adopts some Shared Goals. Here are some initial thoughts:

Emmarentia is a suburb we all love and care about because:

• We know what the laws and regulations are and we try to abide by them
• We want a residential area that is safe, relaxing, green and residential
• We want an Emmarentia that our children will have good memories growing up here
• We encourage respect between all neighbours in the suburb
• We do not want to do things to our properties that will be detrimental to our properties and those of our neighbours

Keeping our eyes peeled

ERA Chairperson, Ayanda Mjekula, holds ERA’s security portfolio and frequently attends the Parkview Stakeholder Forum (PSF) Wednesday morning meetings. The PSF brings together SAPS, the Parkview CPF, security companies and other residents’  associations in the area as well as JMPD. 

The PSF is able to gauge the extent of crime in the area and to hone in on hotspots.

One of the security hotspots identified by the PSF is Checkers both inside the store, outside in the parking area and on Luzi Lane. ERA has been putting pressure on Checkers’ landlord to enlarge its miniscule loading zone which results in congested and potentially dangerous conditions on Komatie Road. There have been discussions with Checkers and business owners to see how safety in the area can be improved. 

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Events — Holding event organisers to account

Since taking on this portfolio, Saber Manjoo has called meetings with various event organisers to ensure they respect residents. He has stressed that organisers must ‘clearly demarcate parking, have adequate security to deal with illegal parking and illegal carguards and ensure that sound is kept within limits.’

He has also begun to invite event organisers to donate to ERA’s Adopt a Park initiative to help us build a cleaner and safer area. Spar (the races on 6 October) is the first event organiser to agree to do this and has donated R5000 to this initiative.

ERA tries to warn residents in advance of what to expect, how to move in the area when there is an event and who to complain to on the day. And it follows up with event organisers afterwards.

ERA is also busy engaging with Marks Park to see how large noisy events can be limited each year. 

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How we communicate

Claire Hoffmann and Jenny Grice have continued to run ERA’s communication.

Claire is in charge of Facebook, e-mailing to subscribers while Jenny does the newsletter and website. Five newsletters have been produced in the past year. Both of us share the responsibility of putting messages on the whatsapp groups.

In the past year, our Facebook page has grown its followers to almost 3000, our website gets on average 1800 views per month and we share information with more than 12 community Whatsapp groups.

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Thanks!

We have other Exco members that don’t necessarily hold portfolios but their help is invaluable in supporting the collective that is the ERA Exco. Thanks to Kerensa Millard (our legal expert), Shameme Manjoo and Zaahid Kadjeee who fill in when they are available.

Why join ERA:

• You can raise your concerns and help us decide how to take them up
• A Residents’ Association with few members will not have a strong voice to push for what you want
• We need your membership fee to fund important programmes that we want to carry out with your help
• You can help us decide what our priorities should be

Together we can build our community and generate positive energy amongst ourselves.

Your help needed:

We need new volunteers, especially with these skills:

• Someone to support our  current treasurer to do the finances. Must know QuickBooks and preferably have their own copy of the programme.
• Someone to update the website (knowledge of WordPress useful)
• Some enthusiastic youngsters with social media skills to improve our social media presence
• Someone to upload our extensive building and heritage records into the Cloud
• People to write stories for the newsletter — we’ll help you
• Someone to attend CPF security forums every Wednesday

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Concert in the Park – 13 October, Johannesburg Botanic Gardens – Lloyiso and Shekinah

We have just been advised of this concert. No road closures. We are awaiting details of security, parking and will post these as and when we receive them.

Times: 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Doors open at 12h00. Event ends at 18h00.

They will start set up on Friday 11 October with structures and fencing.

Between 2200 and 2500 people.

Contact persons on the day:

Anel – 082 854 4711

Hendrie – 078 098 0159

https://era.org.za/event/music-in-the-gardens-lloyiso-and-shekhinah-13-october