January 2026 Scorecard: Theme: Don’t Spectate, Participate.

January 2026 Scorecard Update

If the first month of 2026 has taught us anything, it is this: The reality is that we can no longer expect things to just work.

In South Africa, the days of sitting back and hoping for the best are over. If we do not become active, we risk the steady decline of our neighbourhood. That is why our theme for 2026 is simple but non-negotiable: Don’t Spectate, Participate.

The year started with a stark reminder of why this shift is necessary. Between Limber blowing (again) and a water outage that persisted for over four agonizing days, patience wore thin. We know the anger was felt across the board, and it felt like service delivery took a holiday. But because we kept pushing, working alongside the Ward Councillor and the Municipality, we turned the tide.

🌍 Closing the Gap: No Road Left Behind

We are making a conscious effort to extend service delivery advocacy to all roads, specifically Bellmuir, Dickens, Rosewarne, Lille, Philhaven, and Moorleigh. These areas are under represented on our Community Group and with the increase in crime, and service delivery issues along the N2. This is a major concern. If you live on these roads, please ask your neighbours to join the Group. You can assure them that the Group is focused on Service Delivery. Read below on stricter moderation of community posts.

We acknowledge the history here: this group traditionally originated from Bayswater, which is why the majority of our members are predominantly from Woodlands Avenue and surrounding roads. However, that historical disadvantage ends now.

We do not want any road left behind. However it a choice to become an active citizen.

We need representation from every street to ensure our pressure on the municipality covers the entire area. Please encourage your neighbours from these specific roads to get onto the group by contacting one of our admins. We have about 55% of households on the Community Group so kindly recruit your neighbours to get involved and informed.

🚧 The Wins: Active Citizenship in Action

Despite the slow start, perseverance has paid off. Here is what has been achieved because we refused to accept the status quo:

The Challinor Saga: This has finally been attended to. We are now awaiting the next rains to confirm if the sewer—unattended for over 5 years—is permanently fixed.
Limber Road: The road has been tarred, and we are currently awaiting the removal of the spoil.
Eric Avenue: A massive win—all lights are now working!
Cannon & Bellmuir: Please note that faults for these roads are in the system, and we are tracking their progress.
Norton Road: Sections of the road that had grass growing through the asphalt have been tarred and fixed.
Animal Ambassadors: A heartwarming win—we successfully reunited several lost furry friends with their owners this month.

🌟 Launching the Volunteers Programme

The biggest strategic step toward "Participation" was the launch of our Volunteers Programme.

This is where ordinary neighbours step up to be part of the change. Whether it is in Animal Welfare or as Street Captains, we now have 25 people onboard actively finding faults and helping manage our area.

We are also proud to announce that we are now lawyered up. This adds a new layer of strength to our efforts, ensuring we have the necessary legal backing to drive compliance and accountability. We are still looking for members of the public who can assist us with Professional services such as accounting, Environmental Science, Social workers, IT Support etc.

Note on Process: We are currently running an "incubation programme" to find our flow. Once we are confident in the process, we will formally present our Volunteers to the community.

📜 Accountability Update: The Open Letter

We recently sent an open letter to Councillor Windvogel and the senior Directors of eThekwini Municipality outlining our critical service delivery demands.

Status: To date, we have received only 2 responses, which came from the Head of Water and the Chief Engineer of Electricity.
Outstanding: Councillor Windvogel is yet to address the other urgent requests detailed in the letter. Such as the formal communication line and who do we escalate issues to when she is unavailable. We are actively awaiting her feedback and will continue to press for a comprehensive response.
We are also waiting for the Ward Committee next steps as the current Ward Committee is non functional which does not help our cause in bringing ward issues to the fore.
There are 31 open Faults that have been escalated to the councillor we await her responses to escalate these faults on our behalf. Only 14 Faults were closed in January and therefore there is a backlog that needs to be expedited to resolution.
We have written to Councillor Windvogel with all related matters that are outstanding, we await the Councillors response and we will ensure we feedback to you or follow the previous open letter post. here for updates. Open Letter to Councillor Ward 65 - Our CommUNITY
Councillor Windvogel was given time to feedback on all faults and concerns prior to publishing of this scorecard. She has emailed the Directors of eThekwini on Saturday 30/01/2026 - 14:55

🤝 Strengthening Our Network: The Admin Coalition

We cannot operate in a silo. To strengthen our position, we have created a coalition with admins from other Groups and Wards within greater Queensburgh.

This allows us to share common experiences and confirm if other areas are experiencing the same bottlenecks we are.

Isolating Faults: This network is particularly helpful during outages, as we can quickly determine if a fault is isolated to us or part of a wider grid failure.
Benchmarking Performance: We are learning how other councillors drive and address issues in their respective wards to ensure we are being reasonable in our requests.
Educating Ourselves: By comparing notes, we are becoming more educated on the expectations per the Municipal Systems Act and other relevant legislation. This ensures we understand exactly what falls within the mandate of local governance and what we have the right to demand.

🛡️ Safety & Security: A Reality Check

We need to have a serious conversation about safety. We shared details about the CCTV initiative and scheduled meetings to get this off the ground—however, no one turned up for the meeting.

As a result, we have cancelled consequent meetings. As effort was put into these meetings and to avoid further disappointment. We need serious people who participate.

This is the danger of "spectating." Our community is currently reactive rather than proactive. The reality is that we are facing a spike in crime: cars are being stolen, houses vandalized, and we even dealt with an incident where an abandoned house was "house jacked." Crime is on the rise, Cars Stolen, Copper theft will unfortunately will only escalate until there is proactive deterrence. We are unfortunately easy targets. Ensure your home is secured.

It cant be that Property has to be lost, or someone has to get hurt, for Safety & Security to be taken seriously. We urge you not to wait until you are a victim to care. The meetings may be cancelled, but the threat remains. Please contact Vishal to arrange time for those that are seriously interested. The CCTV Project cannot be explained over WhatsApp. Its a Technical subject that needs to be broken down into layman terms. However its impact and value cannot be overstated. We have successfully deterred crime from the Pilot Cameras and have been able to provide evidence for related infringements. Please Contact Vishal here

🏗️ Building Compliance & Illegal Dumping

Building Compliance: We have received word that Building Inspectors are actively enforcing by-laws in the area. Please ensure you are fully compliant with all municipal regulations. We have been explicitly told that fines will be issued and non-compliant building projects will be halted immediately. These bylaws need to be taken seriously as the penalties are costly.

Illegal Dumping: Zero Tolerance We are taking a hard line on this issue. Illegal dumping is decaying the very place where we live, and we are intolerant of it. It can no longer be overlooked. We will report it if anyone is caught, and we will ensure the maximum penalty of R5000 is issued. Do not dump in our neighbourhood.

⚠️ Critical Update: The Water Situation

If you have been following the news, you are aware that eThekwini’s Water Department has finished its budget.

The Reality: There are virtually no plumbers available to do the work. It is going to be tough until the Council makes financial adjustments. This means that if we have a leak, we may be directly affected by long delays. We have raised our concerns with the MEC of COGTA, the Hon Reverend Thulasizwe Buthulezi and his office has acknowledged our concerns and it will be discussed in their next planning meeting.

Infrastructure Goals: We are continuing to push for long-term upgrades. Specifically, we need the aging Asbestos water piping replaced with PVC. This is crucial to preventing the constant bursts that leave us dry. We now need Councillor Windvogel to hold the Municipality accountable for the feasibility assessment they promised. Councillor Windvogel emailed the Directors of eThekwini at 14:55 Saturday 31/0/2026 requesting an update, which was received and replied to.

Your Preparation:

Be prepared for longer wait times for leaks.
Look into installing Storage Water Tanks as a redundant water supply. See here for tips. Considerations for Installing a Storage Water Tank - Our CommUNITY
Always keep emergency water stored for when the taps run dry.

📱 Introducing: NeighbourNet (and New Rules)

We are excited to announce the launch of NeighbourNet. This is the designated platform for:

Trade or swop (TradeNET)
Buy & Sell (Buy&SellNET)
Lost Pets (PawNET)
Promoting Local Business Services (AdNet)
Employment Opportunities and requesting Services (JobNET)
Missing Persons Alerts
General Chit Chat (ChatNET)
Traffic Related issues (TrafficNET)

Strict Moderation Going Forward: To fix our neighbourhood, we must get serious. Therefore, we will be much stricter on content posted in the main Community Group. You do not need to join all groups in NeighbourNET but the ones that are relevant or appealing to you, Please mute the NeighbourNET Group as a suggestion as it does become busy. Admins are not responsible for any scams on NeighbourNET and warnings are posted.

Purpose First: The Community Group needs to retain its purpose. Chit-chat that does nothing to promote our goals, initiatives, and creating unity within our community will no longer be entertained.
NeighbourNet is the only platform to use for non-service delivery topics.Use ChatNET for general chat.
Please use the Crime Group for Criminal matters, please note this group is not related to the Community Group.
Any posts in the main Community Group not related to service delivery will be deleted. Zero Tolerance: Continuously not adhering to these requests from residents will result in removal from the group after just 1 warning.

We need to keep the main channel clear for urgent updates and infrastructure faults. As harsh as this seems the feedback from members is that the Group posts are overwhelming and the gist of important issues are buried between unnecessary posts. Therefore the Group will be strictly moderated. All pet related content needs to be posted in PawNET only.

♻️ Refuse, Air Quality & Power

Refuse Removal: Marvin is the definition of an active citizen. He has been working closely with CSW, holding subcontractors strictly responsible for ensuring schedules are followed and every road is serviced. Crucially, he is working behind the scenes to ensure that the supply of black and orange bags are distributed to us. Currently there is no stock. Marvin has sent through all the names of the streets/roads that need orange bag collection. This upcoming Thursday 05/02/2026 has been confirmed for orange bag collections. Thereafter every second week.

Air Pollution: Our complaint is still open with the DFFE and the SAHRC. Provincial environmental enforcers are on the ground ensuring municipal compliance however the issue persists with individuals who continue to dump illegally and burn refuse at night. We have formed a coalition with other concerned groups In Malvern, Bellair, Umbilo and Westville to push until we can all breathe fresh air again. We are awaiting for Feedback from Councillor Windvogel for actions from the Municipality.

Power & Grid: We are pushing for our electricity cabling to be audited and upgraded. Our infrastructure has been in place since 1956, but our area has urbanized so much so that it is definitely not the same. With temperatures rising during this season, the old oil-cooled substations are taking a hammering. Every year it seems our Summers are becoming hotter and harsher. We can expect trips and outages during Feb/March. We have asked eThekwini to assess our infrastructure and budget accordingly to get this to an acceptable Level.

The Burning Bush - The Bush on Mervyn and Woodlands Avenue was cut by our admins, we cant keep talking about things we need to act. The bush posed a major risk to our residents and countless reports of almost "Accidents" became to prevalent to ignore. As admins we have set an example, less talking more doing. Please participate. We want to complete this Project next Saturday 07/02/2026 between 8am and 10pm. We need Gardeners with tools and 3 Bakkies to finish this project. Please reach out to our admins to volunteer. Read more - Mervyn and Woodlands Avenue Cleanup: The Burning Bush - Our CommUNITY

🗳️ Election Watch: 2027

Local government elections are scheduled for January 2027 by the IEC.

Please pay special attention to the news and social media as we approach this date. We need real change across eThekwini, and that starts with us.

Your Action Checklist:

Register: Ensure that you are registered to vote by visiting the IEC website and confirming your status immediately.
Register to Vote if you haven't voted before, we cannot have voter apathy with what's at stake in our Community and our City.
You can also change your registered address if you are new to the area on the IEC website.
Turn Out in Mass: It is critical that all registered voters and qualifying citizens turn out to the voting stations in mass. Apathy is the enemy of progress. We will post more on Voting stations and the voters roll over the next few months.
Vote for Policies, Not Personalities: We need people who can "walk the walk" by doing the basics right consistently and for the people. We do not need leadership that is distracted, inconsistent, or fails to take their fiduciary duty seriously.

Our Commitment: We will be engaging with all candidates standing for Councillor of Ward 65. Our intention is to interrogate exactly how they plan to make us a priority and fight for us. No party should take our vote for granted.

🔮 Looking Ahead: Tech & Systems

We are currently redesigning our bespoke application which provides dashboards to the community.

As admins we took a decision to overhaul our fault-tracking system now that we better understand the inner workings of the Municipality. We take service delivery seriously, and our goal is to track faults, request updates, and escalate effectively using a system built specifically for our needs. We will embrace technology where automation and data can assist us to see trends, see where streets are under served and pivot quickly to meet the needs of our community.

With that in mind we are in the process of rewriting the app and then extrapolating the Data to give you a public dashboard. We still encourage you to log faults and drop your Fault reference in the Group so we can keep track of the issues affecting us. Due to the amount of time and energy to recreate our app we cannot give you a deadline as yet but know we are working really hard with the limited time we do have.

For the Knowledge Workers (Deep Dives) & Resource Updates

We have added a new category under the Resources page on our website a "deep dive" section on topics for our area. For those who love history, environmental studies, interesting and arb facts about our community this is for you. Did you know that Fairfield and Surrounds was Fairfield Dairy farm with the Farmhouse being what today is Hillary Social Club?. Please browse here https://www.unityincommunity.org.za/deep-dive/ and download and read about the research we have undertaken. You can also email us on hello@unityincommunity.org.za for topics you would like us to research and add.

Please be sure to contribute pictures, stories and other aspects for our History and Memorial Project where we would like to leave a digital legacy for the next Generation. Read more here. https://www.unityincommunity.org.za/2025/09/21/history-memorial-project/

Under Resources you will find Tips, City Bylaws, How to Guides, Initiatives, Legacy Projects, Media, Meeting updates, the Monthly Scorecards, and news. These resources are updated monthly.

As an example if you do not have the eThekwini app please find our guide here: How do I Download the Ethekwini Municipal App to Log a Fault? - Our CommUNITY

❤️ Unsung Heroes: Our Administrators

Finally, we must say a massive Thank You to the Admins who work behind the scenes and are often not seen on the group.

They play a vital part in the cog that keeps us going. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things, dedicating hours of their personal time to keep this community informed, organized, and moving forward. Without them, none of this would be possible. If you are reading this give a shout out to the admins on the Community Group.

A Final Word January was a slow month, but we are just getting started. A special thank you to our volunteers who have chosen to participate—with them onboard, we can now move our neighbourhood needle forward faster. We encourage others to do the same so the sanctity of our homes can be ensured. There is a place for everyone who wants to participate.

The reality, We are in a community in decay because everyone wants to only focus on their homes and their needs. If we don’t work together, we risk that in less than 2 years there will be nothing to save. Those that can move out, will, and we will become like many other neighbourhoods: deeply affected by crime, drugs, prostitution, and of course, neighbours who will create havoc. With your participation we can reverse the tide. Studies show that when anything is cared for it flourishes.

The Greatest Threat: Jane Goodall stated, "The greatest danger to our future is apathy".

A Failure of Action: Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". He also described apathy as a form of "moral and political suicide".

The Cost of Inaction: Plato is often attributed with saying, "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men"