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Plenty of Action and Activity in ERCID

Not only are the regular and customary matters for which the respective teams of the ERCID are responsible, attended to and taken care of in Elsies River, but there are also heart-warming cases of people going the extra mile and beyond the call of duty. 

Following are some of the issues that have in the last weeks been addressed: 

Illegal dumping: 

At least 16 cases of illegal dumping were discovered and dealt with by the ERCID during the past weeks. In all these cases, the ERCID Cleaning and Maintenance Team cleared and remove the dumped matter as soon as possible. The ERCID management asks all businesses and property owners to please act responsibly and to not dump refuse on the streets of our Improvement District.  Illegal Dumping carries a very heavy fine and if caught the ERCID will act decisively. We also ask that if anyone witnesses illegal dumping to immediately report the details of the dumping and persons/vehicles responsible to our 24 hour control room at 086 15 15 800.

The following list includes these respective incidents: 

  • In front of A.K Wholesalers, corner of 6th Avenue and Halt Road. More incidents of illegal dumping occurred in the area.  
  • In front of Speedy, corner of 19th Street and Epping Avenue. Public Safety Officers discovered illegal dumping at the bus terminus.  
  • In front of no. 49 Consani Avenue. 
  • Corner of Epping Avenue and 20th Street.  
  • Corner of Epping Avenue and 19th Street. 
  • At the terminus, 1st Avenue and 20th Street respectively. More incidents of illegal dumping occurred in the area.  
  • In front of A.K Wholesalers, corner of 6th Avenue and Halt Road. More incidents of illegal dumping occurred in the area. 
  • At the Green garage, corner of 20th Street and Epping Avenue. 
  • In front of MTD House, no. 6, 11th Street. 
  • Public Safety Officers discovered illegal dumping at 6th Avenue and 14th Street respectively. 
  • At 14th Street and at the corner of 20th Street and Epping Avenue respectively. 
  • At the corner of 20th Street and Epping Avenue. 
  • At the corner of 19th Street, 16th Street and Epping Avenue. 
  • At the corner of 19th Street and Epping Avenue. 

Fire at 19th Street 

Our vigilant CCTV camera operators spotted a fire on 19th Street at the corner of Epping Avenue in Elsies River. The business premises that were affected, were Abil Services, Recycle Company, Speedy Services and the petroleum garage. The fire started at the recycling premises and spread to the adjacent building.

The ERCID Public Safety Officer, Forensics, SAPS and The City of Cape Town Building Inspector was on-scene.  The fire brigade swiftly completed the operation at the site.  

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Stolen vehicle recovered 

The ERCID Public Safety patrols located a vehicle that had been stolen in Bellville and was found in Consani Road next to the scrap yard. Elsies River Police were on the scene and the owner confirmed the tracker showed that the vehicle had come into Elsie River around 03h00. It was also not the first time his car had got hijacked. 

Two suspects caught after robbing a female: Corner 7th Avenue and 11th Street 

While on patrol our ERCID Public Safety Officers apprehended two suspects who robbed an unknown female on the Corner of 7th Avenue and 11th Street Elsie River. With the assistance of our CCTV camera network two males and a female were spotted in 12th Street. The one male was walking with his arm around the female’s waist on the Corner on 12th Street and 7th Avenue while the other male was a distance behind them. They two males then suddenly robbed  the lady of her belongings.  The ERCID response vehicles were informed and proceeded to the scene. The Public Safety officers confirmed that when the two suspects saw them, they threw the unknown female’s wallet into the yard of one of the businesses but the  two suspects were apprehended on the Corner of 8th Avenue and 12th Street.  The police arrived shortly after, and two suspects were apprehended. 

Cleaning 

ERCID Cleaning and Maintenance Team was deployed for the following respective purposes: 

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  • to clear and remove illegal dumping at the canal, Coleman Street; 
  • to cut grass at the 16th Street canal. They managed to pick litter at Consani Avenue;  
  • to pick litter and sweep curbs in the area; 
  • to de-weed and maintain the Coleman Street garden. They managed to pick litter, sweep curbs and remove illegal dumping in the area; 

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Urban management

Our Social Work Team in partnership with NGO MES was contracted to clean the 16th Street canal (12th Street up to Coleman Street). 

City of Cape Town’s Roads and Storm Water Department performed the following actions: 

  • replaced a missing fire hydrant cover at the corner of 7th Avenue and 12th Street. 
  • repaired a burst water pipe at the corner of 8th Avenue and 19th Street. 
  • replaced an underground water pipe at Coleman Street 
  • repaired of a burst water pipe in front of Central park, no 165 Epping Avenue. 

City of Cape Town’s Electricity Department repaired the following: 

  • Streetlights at Consani Avenue. 
  • A broken lamp of a streetlight at the corner of 6th Avenue and 23rd Street

S.M Construction was contracted by the City of Cape Town reinstate the road surface at 19th Street. 

The City of Cape Town’s contractors repaired the following: 

  • roadway at the corner of 11th Street and Epping Avenue. 
  • the pavement in front of PescaTech, 6th Avenue. 

Three abandoned puppies rescued opposite Weavewell business premises

Response Officers Lumko and Lennox RV-216 informed control about three abandoned puppies that had been dumped opposite Weavewell business premises. The Response officers confirmed that the Security Officer Arama at Coleman Business Park had informed them of the abandoned puppies. 

Wendy of SBCA 24hour Animal Rescue Services was contacted on 083 326 1604 and confirmed they had only one vehicle available and that the driver was at that stage occupied. Mr Lohrentz was informed via telephone of the situation. He later confirmed that he had contacted Mr Houston at Emplast business premises in Elsies River to find out if Mr Houston could help by maybe keeping the three puppies at his place for the night. Mr Houston agreed that the Response Officers could bring him the puppies. 

Wendy was subsequently informed that the puppies would be safe for the night and where they would be staying. She then confirmed that she would be able to send her driver the following morning to collect the three abandoned puppies. 

Response Officers proceeded to drop off the three abandoned puppies at Mr Houston’s premises. 

 

The City of Cape Town draft Budget 2018-2019 comment period is open

The City of Cape Town draft Budget 2018-2019 comment period is open
Dear Cape Town residents and businesses

The draft Budget 2018-2019 is available for comment until 16:30 on Friday, 4 May 2018.

A budget of R 49.1 billion will be spent in the metropolitan area to ensure that services are maintained, improved and expanded, that capital projects are rolled out and that the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) is implemented.

The effect of the unprecedented and continuing drought is a strong theme and has influenced many factors, including tariff increases and reviews in tariff structure.
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2016-2017 Budget highlights: Created 45 370 EPWP job opportunities; invested R 3.7 billion (2015/16: R 3.3 billion) in repairs and maintenance; installed 1 747 subsidised electricity connections; provided 676 new taps and 2 085 new toilets to informal settlements; achieved 69,86% employment rate of people from employment equity target groups at the highest levels of management.

Highlights from Annexure A:

  • An allowance of R 76 million for indigent relief.
  • Introduction of a fixed service charge for both water and electricity.
  • Planned capital expenditure includes R 5 billion for Informal Settlements, Water & Waste. Services, R 1.7 billion for the Transport & Urban Development Authority and R 1.1 billion for Energy.
  • Simplifying the steps of the water and electricity tariff from six to four.

The proposed average rates and tariff increases for 2018-19 are shown the table below.

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Important things to remember:

  • The City does not make any profit on the sale of water or electricity.
  • The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved an average percentage price increase of 5.23% to Eskom for the 2018-19 financial year, which translates to a 7.32% increase for municipalities.

Frequently asked questions:

ERCID Data goes “live”

ERCID Dashboard1Geocentric as the Management Company or the ERCID has taken the bold step to introduce live operational statistics to all its CID contributors.  With our Mobile Reporting App and our “State of the Art” management system we can update our operational data direct to the ERCID Website.

By simply going to our ERCID Statistics page you will have live, up-to-date information of the work we are doing in the ERCID.  As data arrives from the field into our management system, relevant statistics will automatically update on our ERCID website.

ERCID DashboardOperational data is shown in three different formats including “counters” (this shows the number of incidents of a certain type), Graphs and Maps.  The map data displays the location and clustering of specific types of incidents depending on the theme of the map. You can even look back in time using the date filter on the page.  The dashboard hand4will always show the accumulated information for the current month.

We believe that our ERCID property and business owners and our ERCID users should have the ability to see what we are doing and be informed daily.

You can also stay in touch with incidents and alerts within the ERCID by downloading the Mobile Reporting App.  It Is available from both the Apple iStore and the Google Play Store for iOS and Android devices.

W57 | STATEMENT BY EXECUTIVE DEPUTY MAYOR: ALD. NEILSON: Let’s keep our water-saving focus Team Cape Town

CITY OF CAPE TOWN

 

20 MARCH 2018

 

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE DEPUTY MAYOR, ALDERMAN IAN NEILSON

 

Let’s keep our water-saving focus, Team Cape Town

 

As at Monday 19 March 2018, our collective consumption over the past week was 565 million litres of water per day. Unfortunately, usage has increased by 54 million litres per day from last week’s record low of 511 million litres per day. Nevertheless, we are confident that our water users will again shatter water use records in the weeks ahead. Read more below:

 

Our dam levels have shown only a slight decline of 0,3% to 22,7% . This is the lowest decline in dam levels this year to date. This can likely be attributed to somewhat lower evaporation rates and small amounts of rainfall, especially in the Steenbras Dam area.

 

We will continue to monitor the water usage trend to see whether the increase in consumption is a once-off occurrence or whether there is another underlying reason that would need to be addressed.

 

Level 6B water restrictions are still in place. Water pressure reduction remains in place, water management devices continue to be installed on the connections of high water users and the bills based on 6B tariffs are reaching consumers. It is essential that we all continue to save water.

 

All water users are reminded that the City is still required by the National Government to reduce water usage to 450 million litres per day in order to stretch the available water supplies through the rest of the year. This equates to a reduction of 45% from normal usage. We are currently hovering at just below a 40% reduction. A sustained collective push is now required to reduce consumption by just 5% in order to achieve our target.

 

We will continue to drive our initiatives to reduce water consumption. This will include advanced pressure management, the installation of water management devices at the properties of high water users and proactively implementing advanced water restrictions and associated tariffs to encourage behaviour change.

 

If all Capetonians join us by keeping their consumption down to 50 litres of water a day, or less, we will avoid having to take more drastic actions.

 

Please visit www.capetown.gov.za/thinkwater for all water-related information, including Level 6B restrictions and FAQs about Day Zero as well as tips to lower usage even further.

Geocentric Launches New App

“As Geocentric we are very proud to launch our new mobile phone reporting application,” said Gene Lohrentz of the urban management company recently. “This is another way in which we are enabling our CID business and property owners to interact with their City Improvement District Management. 

“We want our CID contributors to become part of our family by interacting with us about issues they might encounter.  The mobile application makes that possible on the devices most people have with them every day.” 

The Geocentric app allows users to easily report issues in the City Improvement Districts managed by Geocentric Urban Management based in South Africa.  Currently the areas covered by this Application include Beaconvale Industrial Area, Elsies River Industrial, Glosderry, Maitland, Salt River, Somerset West CBD, Stikland Industrial, Strand CBD and the Tygervalley CBD.  

Geocentric Reporting App 2

With this application, users can report urban defects, crime incidents, public safety issues and general comments.  “We will acknowledge your report and provide you with feedback throughout the process.  We will also send you ‘Alerts’ of problems in your CID area, such as water leaks or power outages and we can even send crime alerts and safety tips to your mobile phone. 

The Geocentric Reporting Application is Free of Charge 

Simply install it and register as a user when using it for the first time.  If you need any help, please contact support@geocentric.co.za 

 Geocentric Reporting App 1

Let’s get started! 

  • Simply download and install the App from the Google Play or Apple App Store  
  • Register as a user, using the app when you open it for the first time 
  • We will send you a confirmation email and you will have to activate your app by clicking on the activation link in the email – this is to ensure we are dealing with people and not spammers. 
  • Go to your email and verify your email address 
  • Log in and you are ready to go! 

Urban Management Trolley Introduced

The Geocentric Urban Management Trolley Project was initiated in 2017. 

The aim of the project is to provide urban cleaning and maintenance teams with a platform to improve their daily tasks, assist with moving of equipment and tools and enable recycling while performing their tasks. 

A few design considerations were introduced into the design of the trolley including 

  • The ability to move heavy loads of litter or recycling from one point to another without effort or potential injury 
  • Create high visibility for the cleaning and maintenance teams 
  • Have quick and easy access to tools and equipment 
  • The ability, even when fully loaded, to easy ascend and descend kerbs and sidewalks 
  • Be able to separate waste as they work to support the recycling initiative 

To achieve some of these design principles, Geocentric looked at simple solutions from other designs, for example, the stair-climbing suitcases used by so many travellers.  By scaling up the design for the urban management trolleys, we could produce a sidewalk and pavement climbing trolley where the urban management worker needs minimum effort to get onto and off pavements to perform their duties.  

(See photos of step 1, 2 and 3 illustrating this concept.) 

step1

step2

step3

The trolleys were also designed to be pushed from any side with key tools located in the middle so that it is in fact easy to use it for a two-man team operation.  On each side of the trolley a plastic tool box allows storage for small tools. 

Recyclables like tin cans, glass and plastic bottles are collected by the urban management workers throughout the day as they clean the streets and public spaces and at the end of each day they separate the items into baskets whereafter Geocentric recycles the items. 

trolley 4

This is another way in which we make CID operations more sustainable and environmentally friendly as we prevent a vast amount of waste from simply going to landfills. 

Geocentric have rolled out these trollies in the Elsies River and Beaconvale City Improvement Districts and plan to roll them out to all the other CIDs under Geocentric management through the course of 2018. 

trolley 5

trolley 6

Housing Development Plans and Approval in Place

A statement was received on 14 February 2018 regarding the new housing development that is earmarked for Elsies River, on the premises of the old so-called ‘Double D’ factory. 

Here is the communication received directly from the developer: 

“E-Junction Property Developers has finally received plan approval on the security village planned for Elsies River Industrial.  The development will comprise 2-bedroom apartments for the rental market only, becoming available at ± R6,500/month. 

“Construction is expected to start in the second quarter of 2018 with a projected completion date towards the end of 2019.   

“A special word of thanks and admiration towards the Parow Municipality’s planning office for the outstanding and professional service during the approval process of this development, and to the members of the Elsies River CID, for their continued patience in the process of making Elsies River a desirable neighbourhood again. 

“With over R200m being invested in this project, it stands as a strong statement of confidence in the ever-brightening future of Elsies River and surrounds.” 

ERCID adds value to Look and Feel of Elsies River

Thanks to the commitment of all who are involved in the Elsies River Improvement District drive, strides of progress are being made in various ways. 

 

The accompanying images tell the story of how problems like illegal dumping and the confiscation of stolen trolleys and wheelie-bins are successfully addressed by the teams. 

 

The Public Safety issues that are addressed during the day-to-day activities, include problems related to the following:  

  • Illegal Dumping 
  • Engaging with the public (public safety officers engage with all people in the public space to ensure that everyone is aware of the ERCID’s presence and activities. This is done in conjunction with and in support of law enforcement officers who oversee such activities. If something suspicious is found, the law enforcement agents and/or SAPS act accordingly. 
  • Bin scratching  
  • CCTV in action  
  • Trolley and wheelie-bin confiscation 

 

The Cleaning issues include: 

  • Litter picking 
  • De-weeding 
  • Sweeping streets 

 

On the Urban management side, the ERCID Management continues to log all urban and infrastructure defects as C3 notifications with the City of Cape Town for correction. The accompanying photo collage shows the result of these actions as the City and other partners address issues. 

 

Photographs: 

Demonstrating the variety of activities that the ERCID engages in, sometimes in collaboration with teams of the CCT and law enforcement agencies. 

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Illegal Dumping in the Spotlight

The problem of illegal dumping is one that occurs in most areas of the city and is also one of the main challenges that the ERCID has to contend with. 

  • People are prepared to change, but only if they are constantly monitored and warned regarding the consequences of dumping. 
  • Some incidents stem from persons coming to the various scrap dealers and trying to dump waste not accepted by them. This comes from street persons / horse and cart operators and unscrupulous waste handlers. 
  • ERCID engages with these persons and encourages them to make use of the City’s drop off facilities, of which Parow Drop off Facility is situated close by and disposal is free of charge. We also indicate that if caught and reported to Law Enforcement they can face fines up to R20 000. 

 

The paragraphs BELOW are extracts from the website of the City of Cape Town, where it is pointed out that dumping is highly illegal. 

What exactly does illegal dumping entail?  

“Illegal dumping is the depositing, discharging, spilling or releasing of any kind of waste in or on any public space. This includes waste that is loose or in boxes, barrels or bags 

“Public places include: 

  • open fields; 
  • vacant or occupied land; 
  • roadsides; 
  • sewer systems; and 
  • waterways. 

“Although the City has a number of waste management strategies and services in place for dealing with all types of waste, we have a dumping problem in Cape Town. It is one of the biggest challenges the Solid Waste Management Department faces. It is expensive, damages our environment and is harmful to ourselves and our animals.” 

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PLEASE NOTE 

“Dumping on any public land is illegal and an offence: We work closely with SAPS in illegal dumping investigations. If you are found guilty of dumping illegally you could be fined between R500 and R10 000 and could get a prison sentence of 6 months to 2 years. 

To report illegal dumping in your community, call 0860 103 089. 

If you have the culprit’s vehicle registration number and/or can identify him/her, call 021 400 6157 or email solidwaste.bylaw@capetown.gov.za. “ 

On the website, the City of Cape Town goes on to appeal to residents and businesses to assist in curbing and dealing with the problem: 

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Help us control dumping 

Look out for our Big Green Bins 

Green waste bins have been placed near toilets in informal settlements and public toilets so that residents can dispose of waste properly. In 2014/2015 and 2015/2016, the City rolled out 929 bins in 24 informal settlements at a cost of approximately R753 000. Eventually these bins will be placed in all informal settlements where we are legally able to place them. 

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Do your part 

  • Buy additional waste bins if you need them. 
  • Make others aware of the importance of keeping our environment clean and litter free. 
  • Fence off your property to prevent others from dumping on it. 

 

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Report illegal dumping  

To report illegal dumping in your community, call 0860 103 089. If you have the culprit’s vehicle registration number and/or can identify him/her, call 021 400 6157 or email: solidwaste.bylaw@capetown.gov.za.  

In order to be sure that you are fully informed on the contents of the City’s Waste Management By-law, visit the website www.capetown.gov.za  

City of Cape Town: Integrated Waste Management By-law, 2009 

Published in Province of Western Cape: Provincial Gazette no. 6651 on 21 August 2009 

  1. Amended by City of Cape Town: Integrated Waste Management Amendment By-law, 2010 on 4 June 2010 
  1. Amended by City of Cape Town: Integrated Waste Management Amendment By-law, 2016 on 30 June 2016