THE PAST WEEK

Last week Doringkloof had one attempted burglary in Tugela Ave at 01:00. Nothing was taken although the alarm went off.  Then a burglary took place one morning at 04:00 in Bashee St.  This time the suspects entered the premises even though the residents were at home and asleep.

Of further concern is the incident one evening where two vehicles parked on the pavement in Selati Ave. had their tyres slashed.  Is this not plain vandalism, something that we have so far been spared in Doringkloof? 

During the week we again had the normal reports of suspicious vehicles or persons.  Reporting of suspicious persons and/or vehicles is very important but only has results if the suspects realise that we are watching them.   It is again stressed that if you hear on the radio that a suspicious person of vehicle is reported in your neck of the woods, please do not turn your radio down so that you can hear the TV but go out into the street or at least to your gate and report the movement as the suspects move past your house.  (Note:  So far no one has been the victim of crime when reporting a suspicious person or vehicle so let’s us all play our part, and not rely on the patrollers.)

 

SPRUIT CLEAN UP

On Saturday morning 12 members of FODS (including quite a few new faces) picked up the litter in the spruit between Zambezi and Outeniqua Bridges.  27 bags were collected which is apparently a record. 

Unfortunately, in Doringkloof all the street drains take the rain water down pipes to the spruit.  Moreover, many of the people who pass along our street use the street water drains as a convenient place to get rid of their rubbish.  Every time we have a storm this rubbish is then washed down into the spruit which results in the spruit looking very much like the old Wingate Municipal rubbish dump.  Someone then has to pick up the rubbish and although the municipality tries to do so, they do not do the job properly.  And this is where we as residents come in.

If we do not keep the spruit clean we end up with not only an eye sore, but it devalues the suburb.  Visitors will see Doringkloof as a scruffy, dirty place where people have no pride in their surroundings. Residents will no longer go for walks or exercise their dogs in the spruit because who wants to do so in a filthy place.  Soon residents get to feeling why should they keep their pavement neat when the rest of the suburb looks like a dump.  Criminals then start to use the spruit as not only as an access route to Doringkloof, but to hide their stolen loot amongst the rubbish, leading to a further deterioration in the suburb.  No longer will Doringkloof be the sought after place to live and work in.

As in crime prevention, we cannot rely on just a handful of volunteers to keep the spruit clean.  To do justice to the area we need a lot more residents to give of their time – only an hour or two a month on a Saturday.   If we do this the spruit becomes a safe area to walk in and enjoy.  Potential buyers will want to live here and so raise the value of all our properties.

SO DO YOUR BIT FOR DORINGKLOOF!

 

FINANCE

The DRA really needs our funds urgently, firstly to pay our licence fee to ICASA, (that is R50 annually for every radio tuned into the Doringkloof Neighbourhood Watch channels), and secondly, to fund the projects planned to make Doringkloof safer.  One of these projects is to install a number of new CCTV cameras at strategic positions

If you are not able to make a monthly or even a once off donation, please consider at least paying the licence fee.  You can make your payment into the DRA bank account as below:

Banking Details for Doringkloof Residents' Association.

Account Name; Doringkloof Residents' Association

Account Number: 406 902 6417

Bank: ABSA Bank

Branch: Centurion  –  Code: 630445

Pls indicate reference as DON for Donation or CON for Monthly Contribution.

Reference to also indicate address please.

Example:  Contribution from 154 Maroela would be…..CON-MAR 154

And Donations can be referenced for example…no 10 Palm….DON-PLM010

And POP can be mailed to: Janet.Els@bcx.co.za.

SO DO YOUR BIT FOR DORINGKLOOF!

Regards,
DNW Team