2019 has been a good year despite South Africa's economic challenges. Our Committee has once again been working hard for the benefit of our two suburbs and without this dedicated team nothing would improve or progress.

Our green team are still with us and work tirelessly on Mondays to make the suburbs look clean and litter free. A very kind and generous resident provides lunch for them once a week for which we are very grateful and so are they! They will be cleaning out the rubbish bins every Monday and Pikitup will be collecting the bags. I am aware of the issue with the rubbish bins and a solid base is being fitted to the bottom so no rubbish falls out and makes a mess. This should be rectified in the next week or two. Rockies Running Club have sponsored another bin to be placed around the area, so thank you very much to Matodzi and his team for this very kind and generous gesture! All this being said, please use them and encourage others to do the same.

The pesky shot hole borer beetle sadly is still around and slowly infecting our trees. As Tessa noted in the AGM there is still no proven cure but there are sprays out there that claim to do various things, but the long-term impact of these solutions is not known and whilst they may delay the progress the fungus and/or beetle makes, none are proven through independent sources to be 100% effective solutions.

At the end of 2019 we started to form a tree committee and a few people raised their hand, thank you to those who have. Please let me know if you would like to join the committee and get this project started again. We are going to mark and log every single tree that is infected and then send this info through to City Parks so they can see the extent of the damage already. This is a mammoth task so we need as many hands on deck as possible!

We now have a dedicated volunteer to manage the traffic portfolio which is great news! Watch this space for updates!

As always Craig Pretorius works very hard behind the scenes on our town planning portfolio.

Approved rezoning applications to note include:-

Ashford House (cnr Oxford and Bolton) –10 Storey mixed use development. SAPRA has appealed against this approval based on the height granted and the lack of zoning controls. SAPRA wishes to ensure that the development responds to the nature of the area from an urban design point of view. As of the 16th of January neither us or the developer has anymore info. We will alert residents as soon as we know more.

Goodman Gallery – 6 Storey mixed use development.

Newport Road – 4 Storey residential development.

Fran and her team at Zoo Lake have achieved a great deal this year, here are some highlights:

The erosion project started on the 1st of June 2019. Phase one and two are complete. We have had great support from the community and JCPZ. We have 11 Phases to complete. We hope to have this project completed by the end of December 2020. Please come and support our next erosion day.

Rolo Turvey as part of his leadership project for the Ridge school has repainted all the wooden benches around Zoo Lake. Thank you Rolo they look amazing. We have formed a relationship with Rocky Road Runners and MyRun to encourage a healthy life style and encourage families to use the park. This has been a successful initiative and the numbers are growing weekly.

A SAPRA WhatsApp was created in June and is for paying members only. It has proven to be a very effective communication tool. If you are not on it and feel you should be, please contact me so I can add you.

Lastly our community blood drive is still ongoing, here are the numbers for 2019. Thank you to everyone who came out and donated blood. Will communicate 2020 dates shortly.

March - 17 donations

May - 12 donations

August - 20 donations

October - 10 donations

As always a huge thank you to all our residents who pay their subs timelessly every year. Without you we wouldn't be able to achieve our key objectives.

Have a great 2020, hope its a happy and healthy year for you all.

Caryn

SAPRA Secretary