WATERWAYS – RALPH RICHARDS
Zandvlei Mouth
Opened 7 Mar, closed 14 Mar, opening 4 Apr, closing 12 Apr, opening 3 May, closing 10 May.
Operation of Weed Harvesters
Cape Shoveler back in the water after fitting new paddle wheels and operated in southern channels 6 March. Kingfisher in operation in northern and southern channels on the 19, 20, 21 & 28 Feb and 1, 6 & 7 March.
Litter Collection at Nets and Grids in Sand River
Little to no information from CoCT – following up.
Sewage Spills
De Lille square – new backup pump installed
Water Quality
No water chemistries from CoCT. However, a private testing indicated the following:
| Date | 11 March 2024 |
| Conductivity (ms/cm) | 35.2 |
| Salinity (ppt) | 17.6 |
| Turbidity (NTU) | 4.56 |
| Ph | 7.45 |
All values within specification for recreational use. This and visual observations indicate water quality good, and volumes of floating algae substantially reduced.
Liaison with Stakeholders
ZPAAC Meeting – 28th February. The salient points affecting the waterways and Marina da Gama residents include:
- CoCT is in a trial phase to eliminate the use of the controversial herbicide glyphosate for municipal roadside spraying. Reserve Management believe stricter management is required and there is a time and place for the use of this herbicide if done correctly.
- Law enforcement on illegal netting and fishing at the mouth has improved. If any illegal fishing activities are spotted this should be reported to Quemic at 0834991717. They will then report this to Marine Law Enforcement.
- Alistair Lee of CoCT indicated that clearing the litter from the canals from Retreat Rd to Joe Marx Boulevard is underway.
- Andrew Taylor (CoCT, Water and Sanitation) reported that refurbishing of sewage lines are almost complete in the Muizenberg area.
- The Reserve Management reported that the Cape Shoveler is back in the water, the Kingfisher deployed to remove water lettuce, the water quality is the best seen for some time, the growth of the Ruppia (pondweed) is doing well and water analysis from the CoCT laboratories have been slow in reporting. This has been escalated to a higher level.
STANDARDS – Demetri Qually
SAFETY AND SECURITY – ROBIN CARLISLE
1.Crime.
There is one crime reported by DB for Feb 2024– Attempted house break – East Lake Dr – between 0900 and 1130 on 14th Feb, 2024
2.Marina Guardians
29 attendees with two apologies.
Included were 5 members of the Exec, whose interest was appreciated.
Carried nem con, it was agreed that the Marina Guardians be reconstituted and operate as heretofore.
I advised the meeting that it was reasonably clear that much of SAPS and the criminal justice system was in disarray, and, indeed, some of it was working directly with criminal elements. The unravelling of law and order is now clear, and we must expect increasing incidents and violence. Whilst we will always call upon SAPS, we must increasingly be our own guardians within in the law.
To this end we must strengthen our own security assets, link with our neighbouring security groups across the Deep South, and fully engage Law enforcement and Metro police who have three big bases within 5 kilometres of the Marina, but who are little seen.
The meeting dealt with the following items:-
-A review of the situation in the key precints of Battleridge, Fishermans, Cannon, Eastlake, Park Island and Uitsig.
We grouped all Uitsig attendees with Val, who has done sterling work in Uitsig, who knows the local situation better than anyone else, and who has been most helpful throughout this process. She will brief the group and set them on the path to leadership and structure.
Battleridge, Fishermans and Cannon are solvent, and will meet with Boudje Giljam to consider the possibilities of amalgamating as a CID.
The remaining areas – roughly parralel with the M5 and some 10% of the residences – sent no reps and we will revert to them later.
-there was discussion on the contribution of the MDGA to security. A small ad-hoc committee will look at proposals to be forwarded to Excom.
-Three representatives of our security service providers were present, and we will meet with them to establish beyond doubt what we can expect from them in terms of monitoring, armed vehicle patrolling and criminal intelligence.
Finally, our LPR and overview camera are managed by three service providers. We are all anxious to replace Navic with a provider with a much cleaner and more current data base.
We ask Exco to consider this as a matter of urgency.
TREASURY – JONATHAN WALTERS
I am still awaiting the completion of February and the year-end financials from the bookkeeper so that I can properly evaluate the income/expenses over the past year to date and the accounts receivable balance to determine the percentage of total invoiced income collected; and I await the detailed notes for the outstanding debtors accordingly.
The statements were sent out 7 March reflecting the increased levy of 8% for 2024. There was some negative response questioning the increase, however, it falls under the constitutionally allowed 10% and aligns with the increase of other expenses experienced across the board. It is necessary to maintain at least a conservative increase to keep up with inflationary expenses. The suppliers have sent their revised increases for 2024 and these have been factored into the budget and payment schedules going forward.
SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES’ LIAISON – LATHIF GAFOOR
* the dredging of the canal was successfully executed. Tons of debris tyres etc were removed by a skilful operator using a ‘long arm’ caterpillar. A dumper truck commenced at 5.30 am picking up the debris. A team then attended to do the final clean up. Songeso was thanked for his efforts in getting things done after many years of prodding
* work on the reconfiguration of robots at the Oudevlei / M5 intersection have now been successfully completed. Work relating to the pedestrian crossings is in progress. It’s now much safer in that traffic is now expertly regulated eliminating the risk of accidents. Elroy, whom I interacted with in July last year at a site meeting was very sympathetic to my concerns and honoured his undertaking that the matter would receive priority and subsequently followed up by email that my proposals were well received and work will commence within six months. Ironically, on the last day of the sixth month I emailed Elroy that it’s now six months for work to commence. The very next day a team commenced work. Well done to the CoCT.
PARKS AND GARDENS – VALERIE BENSON
Lots of weeding, tidying up and preparing for winter rains being done
Bought the following equipment for the MDGA Gardeners:
Replacement line for strimmer
Pending: New chain for chainsaw
EVENTS – VALERIE BENSON
Pending events
23 March 2024 Free Vegetable Growing talk @ 11am at the Marina Pub and Bistro by Fulufhelo “Abraham” Sithole
2024 – “Anything Floats” competition
ARCHCOM – PAUL HIGGINS
Archcom meeting was held on 07 March attended by Gordon Hart, Ulf Martz and me.
Three new plans were submitted, and all three plans were approved.
One resubmission deemed not to be representative of what is existing and needs to have amendments done before our consent will be given.
Two “no objection to departures” were dealt with
COMMUNICATIONS – LISE CARSWELL
- Vicky has updated the lay-out of the newsletter a little and made it more in line with the website lay-out. Fresh and easier to read.
- Newsletter have gone out on time, start and middle of the month, as planned.
- We have started ramping up the information on Facebook. I will put extra effort into this going forward
- Responses to residents’ emails have been slow, due to me being away this month
