Newsletter - October 2008
October 26th, 2008
10th October 08
Dear member,
We’ve had a string of wet, windy weekends. What a joy today to wake to a sunny Saturday after soaking rain.
Advice this morning from Umgeni water – our supplier - that water supply will be interrupted from 8am till 12 noon on Friday 17th October to facilitate repairs and installation of improved equipment. Those of you living elsewhere please notify your staff.
Fragile markets, affect most investors, but none more so than those who had such confidence in the growth of real estate in Zinkwazi. It is sad to see so many ‘for sale’ notices on local properties and to hear that a sectional title down the road realized less than a quarter of its original price under the hammer. It certainly is a time to hold your property for better times to come.
One of our prime strips of real estate bordering the coast - Magai drive is flanked by a joke of a road. Since the laying of new reticulation pipes, the new dark tar strip zig-zags, higgildy-piggildy alongside the old. Mounds of earth lie piled high on pavements flanking magnificent homes. Here and there are gaping pits large enough to engulf a small car, surrounded with no more than tickertape on fragile sticks. iLembe’s Notha Maphumulo has promised to view with me the ‘the completed work’ this week.
From the North Coast Courier we learn that the split in government and ensuing political turmoil has also impacted on our local authority. Kwadukuza Municipalilty being largely Mbeki supporters while ….I quote ‘On the other side of the fence is the iLembe district municipality – a political structure that sits between KwaDukuza and the provincial government that is currently in complete disarray.’ Zuma supporters cite the delay in progress of community projects in different areas on political party loyalties. Lets hope there will be no delay in rectifying Magai drive.
I see from the same newspaper that yet more agricultural land near Ballito has been granted a record of decision to become Ballito Hills – a housing estate of 3000 middle to high-income residences. This development will be constructed between the road that leads from the N2 to Lifestyle centre and Simbithi to the north. Several stringent conditions are to be enforced in this development including the use of solar geysers. The MR445, our access to Lifestyle, is to be widened to four lanes in compliance with the impact of traffic assessment report.
We seem to have heard this all before. …….KwaDukuza municipality announce that they now have the official go ahead to start beach repairs. Work has commenced at Ballito but I do not believe that we at Zinkwazi will have their attention until well into next year. It is comforting however to learn that they have approved the recommendations put forward by our committee, the Ski boat club and the Ward. Hantie Plomp’s comprehensive minutes reflected this. Should anyone wish to receive a copy of the minutes, please contact me. Affected property owners near the car park should not be alarmed with proposals put forward. Hantie assured me that all those affected would be consulted before any changes are implemented. The minutes will be displayed on our ZBRRA notice board at the Mini Mall.
Additional board space has been afforded us by Fish Eagle estates for ‘Community Services’ offered by our local ratepayers and residents living in the village. Several residents have valuable expertise to offer others in the village and there are some home based businesses of high quality we should support. Please contact me if you would like to take up this offer for exposure of your small enterprise. I hope this will assist in a small measure to facilitate communication we lost when the Nkwazi News was discontinued.
ZBRRA and the Ward 2 committee are working well together. Engela Wium is the only remaining member of the original Ward subcommittee. Chairman Neil Wallace, Vice Chairman Rob Hofmeyr and I were invited by Councillor Pakkies and Madame Speaker Veli Luthuli to replace those that had resigned. In the interests of the village we agreed to do so. I was elected as a ward representative along with Engela and will attend council meetings of relevance to our village. Most issues are of relevance to both the ward and ratepayers association and can now be jointly discussed and resolved. Items high on our agenda include planning for New Year and the impending influx of day trippers. Accommodation for the basket weavers, iLembe’s water reticulation problems, the need for increased number of calming humps, effective street lighting, maintenance of servitudes, village and access roads, the removal of garden/builders refuse on pavements, security, the revival of our conservancy and several more. I urge you to read our minutes and those of the Ward on our user-friendly website in order to be informed of the work in progress. The address is www.zbrra.org
‘One man’s meat is another’s poison’. Recycling for Zinkwazi is delayed once more. New legislation to formalise standards for this is to be promulgated. We are therefore not permitted to set up the bins at the soccer field as promised but will advise you as soon as we can.
Please don’t discard old books. Both paperback and hard covers are in great demand at the Mini Mall Second Hand Bookstall started by RAZ and now run by our association. Margo Thiel, Wendy Perkins and Margaret Crossman will accept and mark your donations for sale. The proceeds from the book stall now totalling R1600 will fund some selected projects at our local Bongimfundo school on Schmidt’s Estate.
Scrap metal collection is becoming big business in both rural and urban areas. From the surrounding farming area come shocking accounts of the disappearance of irrigation systems worth thousands and the dismantling of agricultural equipment left overnight in the fields. In a small measure I am aware of similar entrepreneurial activities in our village. Should you have scrap to discard, please phone me and I will arrange for its collection. This will clean up our village and prevent undesirable dumping in the vicinity and discourage undesirable scrounging from your quiet back yard in your absence.
Another ZBRRA initiative which is gaining momentum is the IAP project. To date we have cleared ten properties on behalf of owners, with another five in line. Three months after the initial removal of invaders our staff return to treat undesirable re-growth. I have taken the liberty of planting indigenous trees at no extra cost on these properties – all in line with our goal of re-foresting the village conducive to the support of endemic wildlife. The Flamingo public park has occupied a great deal of our time recently. It’s rewarding to see the lush glistening leaves of saplings after two months release from tangled alien invaders and strangling creepers. In time to come we envisage it to be a recreational spot where one can learn the trees and bird watch on walking trails. I would like to encourage those of you with vacant property to take up this offer of selective alien removal while we have the staff, and return your property to how it looked before human interference. Our new exciting project is the establishment of an Indigenous Nursery. Nic Ellender of Sugar Bay has given me land for this. Any contribution of seed or seedlings of indigenous trees and plants will be very welcome. Once more our goal is to make available suitable plants at cost to the local residents.
We applaud the small group of ladies: Francine Braukmann, Liesel Simmonds, Margie Prain and Heidi Gaul who organised a Spring Ball at Darnall club. The tickets included Roy’s special carvery and the music was a disco by local residents Lynette and Don Reed. R6000 was raised with great joy and went to the Claudette Smit fund and to the Neighbourhood Watch. What a humdinger of a party we had. I woke in the early hours thinking of the pudding I had left uneaten at my table in favour of dancing. I wished I could go back for that pudding.
The Neighbourhood Watch is running well under the guidance of Richard Armstrong, James Gilleran Wesley Herald and Herman Lindveldt We congratulate them for their successful marketing which has resulted in an increase of committed contributors/members from 72 to 129.
Do you have any suggestions of how we can encourage residents in the village to pay R100 monthly towards security? If this were a reality we’d be assured of sufficient funds to cover maintenance of the electric fence and the salaries of the security guards – both essential to our protection within the village. If you are at all confused by the new arrangement of the Neighbourhood Watch and how they operate, please phone me. ZBRRA and the Neighbourhood Watch are two separate entities which both require your support and funding – one, for the vigilant protection of our quiet little village from incorrect development and the upkeep of standards of service from local authorities, and the other for our safety. At a recent committee meeting many proposals on funding ZBRRA were submitted. The committee felt that the membership fee should be reduced by 50% for pensioners and folk on fixed income who find they cannot afford the R100 per month. Our conclusion was as follows. We value each members support We ask that you support us by enrolling as a member if you are not one already, and we ask that you contribute to our association. If you cannot afford R100 per month, please bring this to my attention and we will accommodate you. What we value most is your contribution and support.
We look forward to your support at our AGM on Thursday, 18th December, 6pm at Darnall Country Club. Please remember that all can participate but only paid up members are entitled to vote. Renewal invoices will be distributed shortly. I have planned an informal dinner and social after the meeting. Tickets for Roy’s carvery including the Reeds background music will be R75 a head and are now available from me. Please book early (through email) so as to avoid disappointment. Please invite your family and any friends you may have staying……and be sure to eat your pudding before the Reeds strike up!
Good Wishes from a Summery Zinkwazi
Wendy
