Volunteer to Help on Voter Registration Weekend - 10/11 March

The IEC has announced that there will be a voter registration weekend on 10/11 March in order for them to collect correct addresses of voters as well as to allow voters to register and re-register.

This means that the 4 voting stations in the ward will be open on both Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 5pm and I will need some helpers on both days.

I have split the day into 2 shifts: 7'45am to 12'45pm and 12'15 to 5pm - basically 2 4 1/2 hour shifts. It will not be onerous and your prime tasks will be to ensure that everything runs smoothly and welcoming people who turn up.

If you can do a full shift, that will great, but if you can only do a few hours, that will also be good. The voting stations are (note that you can help at any of them, not just where you are registered). Please drop me a email on ttruluck@gmail.com if you can help.

Thanks for those who have already offered their help. I will start compiling the roster this week.

Ward News

ARe Sebetseng Cleanup Day has moved to the 3rd Saturday of the month. Join up with your neighbours, colleagues, residents associations, church groups, schoolmates and clean a section of your street, neighbourhood, park, etc for an hour. Let me know where the bags are and I'll get Pikitup to collect them. Tweet your good deeds and pics with #AreSebetseng and my handle - @jozi117.

Collapsed Weir on the Spruit in Craighall Park near the Blue Bridge is due to be attended to by the contractor currently working on the gabions in 1st St, Parkhurst.

Gajiga Run Winners: The two lucky winners were: Beatrice Thurman from Blairgowrie and Roland Botes from Parkwood. Enjoy. Thanks for all who entered. For those who would like to do the run, tickets can be purchased via gajiga.co.za. 

It's Rates Time - 19 Feb @ Marks Park: Every year the City invites it's residents to a presentation on what the new rates policy will be in July of that year. This year it is at: 6pm on Monday 19 February at Marks Park, Judith Rd, Emmarentia.

Valuations Roll 2018: According to radio adverts by the new MMC of Finance (read what happened to the old one here), the draft Property Valuations Roll will be open for inspection on 20 Feb until 6 April 2018 - you will thus have 45 days to object. I suspect this will be on the eservices.joburg.org.za. I will include more details in forthcoming emails. In the meantime you read about the Valuations Process here.

What 3 Words is a great free ap that I would like to try out for when you are logging a problem in park or green areas. It is often difficult to give directions to a sewer fill or dumped trash. What 3 Words does is divide the world into 3m x 3m squares and then allocates a unique set of 3 words to describe one of these squares. As an example, seaside.camping.sampling describes square at the outlet of the top dam at Delta Park. All you would have to do is send me the 3 words plus a pic and the problem and I can escalate it to City Parks or other entity.

Re-register Online: When you register with the new IEC address checking page (click here to access it), and fill out your address, it will automatically re-register you at the correct voting station. This will save you from having to do it at a voting station of voter registration weekends.

 Note that I am also able to offer a service for you by advising whether you need to re-register, advice on where you nearest voting station station is and other info. I helped over 1000 residents from all over Joburg in the run up to the 2016 elections. Click here allow me check your current registration status and location. (I have had an elbow op and so am a little slower than normal on the laptop - please bear with me).

Join The DA

If you want to join the DA, it costs R10 a year, BUT, I would recommend you take out a 5 year membership of R50. You can join and pay online - click here.

Please then contact my Branch Membership Secretary - Teigue Payne on 082-892-2218 / teigue.payne@gmail.com - with your contact details and membership #. You can also contact him if you don't want to use the online form.
 

Widening of Jan Smuts Ave 

At long last, the narrow single lane section of Jan Smuts from Zoo Lake to Rosebank and from Rosebank to Bompas Rd in Dunkeld has been scheduled for widening. It will be a trying time for all of us, but it is one of those things that needs to be done. Much of this type of work was put off in the past - now we have to play catch up.

As Mayor Herman Mashaba said in a speech on the State of our Infrastructure last year:

"By 2021, we will have achieved a City where the roads are in a better state than we found them in. We will have achieved a situation where communities experience less power outages than they live with right now. We will have achieved a more stable supply of water, and reduced losses in our water-scarce environment.

This is what it means to be a responsive, accountable and caring government.

The repair and maintenance levels we are engaged with as a City, are quick fixes, and have us using time, people, and funds fixing problems, only for them to return in the weeks or months to come.

It is my objective to turn our entire City into a construction site over the next four years. I want to ensure that on my way to work every day I see roads being resurfaced, cables being replaced, and water pipes being dug up.

But the nature of our social contract between government and residents requires me to appeal to our residents for understanding. Because, like any contract, there must be two parties willingly entering into an agreement together, knowing all the facts. My request to our residents is to please bear with us during this period. Because the job of saving our City from the imminent collapse of our infrastructure cannot happen overnight.

It is a process, not an event. But it is a process through which our residents need to accompany us. So when you experience temporary power outages, water stoppages or potholes, I would like you to know that we are working on resolving the inconveniences and problems. I would like our residents to see the construction around the City, and let it be seen as the progress towards a better, more reliable supply of services to our people."

Thus the road-widening  of Jan Smuts Ave is the beginning of this construction phase where our infrastructure will be upgraded.

At a meeting last week with the consultants and JRA, I determined the following:

- It will directly affect the following suburbs: Saxonwold, Parkwood, Rosebank, Parktown North, Dunkeld and Dunkeld West.

- There will be 2 lanes on both side and it will go from Erlswold Rd to just after Bolton Rd; and again from Jellicoe Ave to just before Bompas Rd.

- It will have a central median that will divide the two sides. This means that some roads - Westwold, Ashwold, Rutland, Sussex, Newport, 12th Ave, Smits - will be left turn in and out only. 

- Intersections will have marked pedestrian crossings and wheelchair slopes. No new traffic lights or stop streets will be installed.

- There will be a 1.5m wide sidewalk and a 1m planted area between the sidewalk and road on both sides.

- Services will have to be removed or realigned. This will result in occasional outages due to accidents and reconnections/work. A Community Liaison Advisor will be appointed to handle these type of problems.

- The trees will be removed. A heritage study was done to determine this. The JRA will provide a tree for planting in the neighbourhood green areas for every tree removed. No trees will be replanted in the road reserve.

- The whole road reserve will be used, so properties will not be able to use it for parking anymore. If they have built over it, it will need to be demolished. These property owners will be notified.

- One side of the road will be done at a time allowing 2 lanes still to be used for traffic flow. But there will be congestion. And rat running.

- There will be a public mtg later in Feb. Details TBA. 

- The contract should go out to tender by late March/April and it is estimated that work will start late this year. It will take about 18 months if all goes to plan. From my experience, there may be delay, but working with you, the consultants and the JRA, I would love to see this be completed by mid-2020.

Join The DA

If you want to join the DA, it costs R10 a year, BUT, I would recommend you take out a 5 year membership of R50. You can join and pay online - click here.

Please then contact my Branch Membership Secretary - Teigue Payne on 082-892-2218 / teigue.payne@gmail.com - with your contact details and membership #. You can also contact him if you don't want to use the online form.

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