In May, we made some truly wonderful progress together in getting our community up to the high standards we all deserve. We identified the roads that desperately needed tarring and sent them through as a batch to the roads department. Within just a week, these requests were assigned to teams, and we happily started receiving feedback. Sarnia near Charisma, Limber, Rosewarne, Bellmuir, and Gardendale all received a beautiful new coating of tar. We are fully aware that the corner of Limber and Cannon, as well as the resurfacing of the road leading into the Sports field, still remain outstanding.
This is fantastic progress; after years of dealing with open water leaks, we finally have our roads getting the tarring they needed. Our focus will now shift to getting our local roads beautifully painted, just like Sarnia, which has really set the standard for us.
Speaking of Sarnia, the street lights were fixed, and the traffic lights at Bellair Primary School are finally being restored to working condition after 15 long years of neglect! This, combined with the new road painting, the zebra crossing, and an eventual crossing guard, will go a long way in making our children much safer. Please remember to slow down when approaching the school zones.
We took yet another drive around our lovely community with Parks and Recreation to personally show them the trees that require immediate trimming. Please be aware that only the trees located on the municipal verge are eligible for this trimming service. Please kindly ensure that any overhanging trees within your own private properties are cut back, otherwise the municipality will unfortunately issue notices for owners to do so. Our saving grace right now is that Parks and Recreation need to do their part on the verges first before they can take us on regarding our private trees!
The verges were cut in May, and for the first time, we can happily report they were done correctly with only one single area missed. Now that we have a direct line of contact with the contractor, we were able to hold them accountable and send them right back to correct the oversight. Please do note that the grass-cutting team will avoid cutting areas where your personal plants are growing. If you notice any areas missed, please report it to us on the very same day so we can correct it immediately; reporting it days later is unfortunately not going to work. The schedule for the upcoming grass cutting has been shared with everyone.
We are thrilled to report that we are down to just one streetlight not working in our entire precinct—what a wonderful difference it makes when our community is brightly lit up, especially as we head into these early winter nights! This warmth really radiates throughout our community, but with the change of season comes the important need to be ever more vigilant. Opportunists will always try to take a chance, so let’s not give them the opportunity by making sure all windows, gates, and garages are securely closed early in the evening. Please also ensure no tools or easy-to-grab items are left out unattended. It is time to lock down and stay safe as we prepare to settle into the winter months.
The beautiful river at Challinor that runs right through our suburb is once again wonderfully clean! By working closely with the Department of Environmental Affairs, the pollution issues we previously faced have been successfully resolved. If you ever notice a stench returning to the river, please inform us immediately and send us pictures or videos so we can escalate the issue right away. Our neighbourhood borders a very sensitive ecosystem, and we all need to do our part to protect our precious wildlife, the environment, and the birds living downstream.
We are also glad to share that the Department of Public Works responded to our heartfelt plea to maintain the Bellair Police Station. As you might know, a really good initiative was started by Lt Col General Mkwanazi, and it is beautifully spreading across all of KZN. The General has truly set the standard for the entire country, and thus we decided together that our own Bellair SAPS needed to look the part too! It will naturally take some time to get a budget officially allocated, but DPWSA has already started the process by working with Station Commander Dladla and Provincial SAPS.
As we approach June, we fondly realize that it has been a full year since the group admins and our amazing Street Captains started working together to deliberately target service delivery. There is absolutely no doubt that in just one year, we have made a massive difference and that our community interventions have led to a much better neighborhood for all of us. Our community group continues to grow from strength to strength, and our shared reach and abilities are expanding daily!
While we haven't quite figured out how to celebrate this special 1-year milestone just yet, we want to sincerely thank everyone for coming together and working with us to stabilize refuse collection and get our orange and blue bags working properly again. Thank you as well for helping us fix street lights, reduce persistent water leaks like "Leaky Limber," and create a much safer environment around Bellair Primary. The wonderful culmination of all this hard work is that we now have the ability to safely run and walk in our neighbourhood—something we couldn't confidently do just a year ago!
Please continue to join us in this uplifting community effort.
We are not entirely sure what the next year ahead holds for us as a dedicated team. It has sometimes been a thankless job, often having to navigate difficult moments with unreasonable people on our groups and at eThekwini Municipality, but it is definitely a true story of patience, persistence, and passion for our home. We absolutely do not ask you for any thanks, but we do warmly ask you to ensure you are registered to vote and that you make your voice heard in the upcoming general elections.
Over the past year, we have realized that on both sides of the fence, we all just want things fixed; there are genuinely dedicated men and women inside the municipality who want exactly the same, however, politics is sadly what always slows down the levers of service delivery. Please go make your mark because it truly matters, and ensure we vote for a mayor and political leadership that has a real policy and a solid plan for our beautiful city.
We want to extend a massive thank you to Councillor Samantha Windvogel for her tireless efforts and for always being so willing to work alongside us. Thank you to the different directors and managers of eThekwini who kindly took their time to meet with us, hear our challenges, and actually act on them; and thank you to the National and Provincial departments who stepped in, helped eThekwini, and held them accountable.
A massive and hearty "well done" goes out to our core team who worked tirelessly day and night to shift the needle forward in our community's turnaround! To our fantastic street captains and volunteers, your contribution to our community is completely invaluable—but most of all, thank you to all of our residents who have placed their deep trust in a group of individuals committed to going far beyond basic service. Thank you all so much, and we highly encourage you to get involved as we have even greater plans for the exciting year ahead! If we each dedicate just 30 minutes a week to our community, we can be so much more than just a neighbourhood; we can be a truly resilient and thriving community family. Most of all, if you call this place home, then it is a shared obligation to ensure that we make a real difference together, making sure the place we live truly represents us, and that we teach our children the incredible value of community service.
Sarah, Marvin,Vishal, Bronwynne, Nomasonto, Wayne our Dedicated Street Captains and Volunteers