Key dates
– CORTAC Domestic Security Awareness Training Thursday 26 July @11am-12:30pm at God First Church, 56 1st ave west. Snacks and tea will be provided.
– The annual spruit day will be held on 22 September 2018. If you would like to get involved, please email Jacques Hough (environment@parkhurstvillage.com) or Natalie Zimmelman (natalie@parkhurstvillage.com).
– A Re Sebetseng 21 July – Park at corner 21st Street and 2nd Avenue, 9am. Please join the community cleaning up the park on the corner of 21st Street and 2nd Avenue on Saturday 21 July at 9am.
Environment
PRABOA has adopted Verity Park and is in the process of doing the same for the 5th Avenue Park. Please see our letter to the Authorities regarding the 5th Avenue Park bridge here with thanks to Chris Diamond (legal@parkhurstvillage.com). We are also planning a street and spruit clean up initiative.
Safety
SafeParks/Parksec is making good progress. In particular, SafeParks/Parksec at the latest count is at 915 subscribers. For your information, in conjunction with Cortac, other actions are being taken, besides the regular patrols. You will understand we can’t give out details. There is steady growth regarding community sign ups and thus the Safeparks/Parksec committee is now in the process of putting down even more resources to further secure our suburb. Look out for more information on this in the next few days.
We have stepped up engagements with SAPS Parkview via weekly meetings on crime and through the Community Policing Forum. We met with crime and safety experts Prof. Rudolph Zinn at UNISA, and Dr. Johan Burger and Lizette Lancaster from the Institute for Security Studies. Rudolph Zinn has written a book on home invasions and Lizette Lancaster has co-authored a book on community safety. We have also engaged with other successful residents’ association including our neighbouring residents’ associations, the Lonehill Residents’ Association and Garscom in Garsfontein, Pretoria. We are collecting the learning from each of these engagements together with better information on crime in Parkhurst in order to develop a safety plan. Our aim is to be proactive in our security approach to reduce crime in our area.
Initial consultations with SAPS indicate that our properties are most vulnerable during the day when domestic workers are there. This is when most house robberies are reported. We are finding time and time again that staff are not equipped and aware of the crime risks that they face whilst at your home. We have therefore consulted with CORTAC to provide Domestic Security Awareness Training, the purpose of the training is to equip your staff if they are faced with a crime incident. This training is open to your staff even if you are not contributing to the Safeparks community initiative, though we do however urge more residents to sign up. We can only deploy more security resources with community support. If you wish to sign up, please visit https://www.parkhurstvillage.com/join or email Lynn Rushton (lynn@safeparks.joburg).
CORTAC Domestic Security Awareness Training Thursday 26 July @11am-12:30pm at God First Church, 56 1st ave west. Snacks and tea will be provided.
A few safety tips
Please do not leave doors or gates open, even only for a minute, to go outside. And if your electric fence has trailing wires, this is an invitation. A horrifyingly large proportion of parked cars have items visible. One problem Cortac are reporting is too many false alarms (over 5,000 per month on average in Parkhurst over the last 5 months). Every alarm call is responded to, but the time taken means they are not patrolling for the full time allocated.
Built environment and heritage
PRABOA successfully halted illegal construction along 6th Street, ensuring that the offending party had their rates doubled. Please get in touch with Greg Hirschson (heritage@parkhurstvillage.com) or Catherine Grainger (architecture@parkhurstvillage.com) on these issues.
Parkhurst Primary
We are in the process of raising funds to repair and upgrade the infants department and classrooms at Parkhurst Primary through a program called “Fund a Class”. To improve educational outcomes we are also gathering volunteers to assist with extra maths lessons at the school. We are also open to any suggestions to help improve the school and quality of education provided at Parkhurst Primary. To get involved, please contact Kundayi Munzara (kundayi@parkhurstvillage.com).
Vumatel and technical
There have been some problems in the last few months with Vumatel, which has since upgraded some of the infrastructure in the area. If you don’t manage to get sufficient support from your ISP please email social@vumatel.co.za or tag Albertina Miya on the I Love Parkhurst secret group on Facebook. You can also email Ryan Hawthorne (technical@parkhurstvillage.com ). We are currently looking for solutions for member management and community interaction for PRABOA / SafeParks / Parksec. Please get in touch with Ryan if you have any ideas on this.
Call for volunteers
PRABOA could use your help! Please get in touch and let us know what you are interested in. We need a car guard solution for homeless people, for example. We could use help on our website and with communications. We can help put you in touch with Incredible Edible Parkhurst if you are interested. We could really use help with our website, communication and marketing particularly SafeParks/Parksec. Do you want to help set up the Village Fair? Please let us know! Please get in touch with Cheryl Labuschagne (chair@parkhurstvillage.com) to volunteer