Chairman’s Report – April 2022

LIFCO Chairman's report for the first 9 months that the new committee have been in place(August 2021 to april 2022)

Quick Recap (2019 to 2021)

The past 3 years have been very challenging for us as residents but also for the world. To say that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world would be an understatement. The pandemic has changed how we work, learn and interact as social distancing guidelines have led to a more virtual existence, both personally and professionally.

We cannot blame the outgoing executive committee if their focus was more on their own survival than on that what they volunteered to do. That is not to say that they neglected the community! If we want to be critical, we can maybe say that they did not communicate as efficiently as they could have. Let’s not forget that whatever they did was done on a voluntary basis. The time they spend on LIFCO projects had to be fitted in whilst coping with the challenges Covid-19 posed.

During this pandemic, the following were and are project’s the outgoing committee initiated and oversaw:

The following areas was maintained and beautified on an ongoing basis:

• The Fredenharry and Cascades entrances to our suburb
• Cascades road from the circle to after the greenbelt
• The Post Office and surrounding areas
• The park area at The Lakes

The following security initiatives was planned and completed:

• Repairing and replacing the stollen palisade panels plus installing new cameras to the fence on Cristian de Wet (These cameras and one of the replaced palisade panels have subsequently been stolen1)
• Installing a new PTZ camera on the mountain behind Ribbon Ave.
• Maintaining the cameras at BP, Kentucky, Top of Fredenharry and in the mountain behind Ribbon Ave.
• Arranging with BCI to take over the monitoring and reaction of the CCTV cameras.

Were instrumental in exposing the drug dealing network on two properties where drug dealers were operating from.

Brief overview from when the present committee took office to the end of April 2022

The present committee took office during August 2021. Unfortunately because of various historical reasons we were immediately faced with numerous challenges. Because of the dedication and hard work of the present committee the following is now in place:

The directorship of LIFCO is now inline with the requirements as detailed in the LIFCO constitution

The constitution have been updated to ensure we adhere to what is required  for the practical and legal running of a Section 21 Company.

A multi discipline system regarding signatories on the bank account is in place. (No one person can approve or make a payment independently)

The audited financial statements is up to date until February 2022. The February 2022 statements have been finalised and will be available on the LIFCO website before the AGM on the 14th of May 2022

The cashflow have been managed to allow us to cover the present running costs of LIFCO. (Security and maintenance)

All outstanding dept have been identified and the necessary action taken to ensure LIFCO get paid.

The following committees are functional and doing an exemplary job:

Finance - A lot of hard work have gone into setting up the discipline required regarding payments from our bank account. The migration from the ZOHO accounting system to the SAGE accounting system (PASTEL) took a lot of time and effort from our financial committee. It is now all in place. A big thankyou to Justin, Shirley, Natalie and Alta.

Secretarial - Between Shirley, Helene and Reg they tidied up all the loose administrative ends.

Communication - Willi spend a lot of time and effort into designing a functional website. 

Legal - Alexia have agreed to assist us with all legal matters.

Security- A communication platform have been established to allow LIFCO to have monthly meetings with all the security companies active in our suburb. SAPS is an integral part of these meetings. Our CCTV rollout is now complete. A layout regarding the positioning and monitoring of the CCTV cameras is displayed under security and are also available on the website.

Projects and Events - Funds have been secured to allow us to maintain our entrances, the park, greenbelt and mountain areas. If not maintained these areas will have a detrimental effect on the security in the suburbs.

Beautifying of the Park and greenbelt - I cannot compliment the lakes team enough. They have been responsible for rehabilitating this area whereby it is now available for the residents to utilise in a clean and secure environment. They have been meeting every Saturday morning, for the past 6 months to work on the Park and dam area.

Rehabilitation of the dam wall - The team mentioned above have been very active with a fundraising project to rebuilt the weir in the dam wall. If this as not achieved the dam wall will collapse completely resulting in the dam drying up. This will have a detrimental effect on everything (aquatic, bird live and animals) around dam and the greenbelt.

Other committees:

Various volunteers have put in a lot of effort regarding the efficient functioning of the balance of the committees. Unfortunately we will need a lot more residents to get involved to ensure we are successful in fulfilling our goals. The following committees need more involvement and commitment from the residents:

Marketing, business forum, community mobilisation, pensioners group, environmental etc.

Introduction to the present LIFCO Exco

Chairperson: Hennie Schreuder
Vice Chairperson: Jenny Naido
Secretary: Helene de Villiers and Reg Mazibuku

Other Exco Committee members are made up of members from the following committees:

Finances: Justin Meyer and Natalie Edward-Graver
Marketing: Clair Fauchet
Communication: Willi Badenhorst
Security: Hennie Schreuder, Jenny Naido and Rafiek Shamar
Projects: Shean Harrison

Present status of the Directors and Bank signatories

Directors: Hennie Schreuder, Helen de Villiers, Justin Meyer, Natalie Graver, Alta Du Toit Schreuder,
Bank signatories: Justin Meyer, Natalie Graver, Alta Du Toit Schreuder, Shirley Le Noury

Brief overview of LIFCO’s Finances

Source of income

• Resident contributions
• Business contributions
• Marketing boards on CCTV poles

Present bank balance is R80,000. This include contributions received and reserved for special projects:

• Dam wall R 40,000
  Security projects R35,000. (Including provision for contributing to the fencing of the greenbelt on Witwatersrand Ave)
• Bank balance after provisions for the special projects mentioned above is R5 000.00

Monthly fixed expenses

Environment: R9,500. This include the beautifying of the following areas:

• Main entrances
• Park area
• Greenbelt entrances:
• Witwatersrand
• Christian de Wet
• Hikers entrance
• Cascades from BP until after the greenbelt

Bank charges, software and internet expenses +- R1950.00

finances

We presently have 70 residents contributing to LIFCO. It is a sad state of affairs that 3.5% of the +- 2200 households contribute to the security and maintenance projects in our suburb’s. From the detail of the fixed expense’s, you can see that 100% of the residents benefit from the funds donated.

NO RESIDENT CAN CLAIM THAT HE/SHE HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT LIFCO. YOU ONLY HAVE TO ENTER THE SUBURBS TO NOTICE THE BOARDS AND WHAT LIFCO ARE DOING REGARDING BEAUTIFYING OUR ENTRANCES, PARK AREAS AND GREENBELT. NO RESIDENT CAN CONFUSE THE PRESENCE OF THE CCTV CAMERAS AND OR CAMERA POLES WITH SOMETHING THE COUNCILL WOULD HAVE DONE.

I want to appeal to all the “Freeloaders” residing in our suburbs to get involved by joining LIFCO!! We need residents to assist in securing and beautifying their suburbs.

I will list the various committees and suggested goals of each at the end of my report. Please look at WHERE YOU THINK YOU CAN GET INVOLVED!

Business contributions - LIFCO presently have 10 businesses contributing on a monthly basis. We have in excess of 150 businesses in our suburb and surrounding areas that benefit financially from our residents buying power and also from the security measures LIFCO put in place. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO ASSIST THE MARKETING COMMITTEE IN CONTACTING THESE BUSINESSES AND PERSUIDING THEM TO JOIN AND CONTRIBUTE TO LIFCO.

Marketing boards on poles - We presently have 6 of these generating income. We have 6 more that need to be marketed to interested businesses.

Sundry marketing boards - One of the goals of LIFCO is to generate income by identifying strategic fences and or walls in our suburb that can be utilized for businesses to market themselves.

Environmental goals

Our goal is to turn the mountain and greenbelt area, from Cascades Road up to Christiaan de Wet Road, together with the mountain, into an exclusive, secure park that can be utilised by all the residents in Strubensvalley and Little Falls. We suggest that a initiative, “LIFCO Men at Work” be initiated. We want to employ at least two fulltime workers to enable us to clean and maintain all of our open spaces. In future If you see a worker in LIFCO clothing, know he is one of your employees!

A big thank you to BCI for their continued assistance in the following operations:

• Regular patrols in the mountain
• Opening and closing the gates in The Lakes Park and also on Christian De Wet. (In future the gate in the proposed security fence on Witwatersrand Street will also have to be opened and closed.)

We have to ensure we protect our abundant wildlife (including the birds) by:

• Maintaining and securing the park area, greenbelt and mountain.
• Repairing the dam wall. Because of the diversity of the dam and the area feeding into it, (stream and marshland) more than 80 species of birds have been identified. A few “Otter” (semiaquatic fish-eating mammals) have been spotted. This diversity need to be maintained and secured when any rehabilitation projects are initiated.

Security: Overview

Resident safety and security are an on-going topic of discussion and concern to LIFCO. Saying that, there seems to be a dangerous misunderstanding amongst residents that LIFCO is responsible for the safety and security of the residents, invited guests, and their personal property.

LIFCO is in no way, legally or otherwise, responsible for the safety and security of residents, guests, or personal property.

While LIFCO and its security partners may implement measures to protect the suburbs common areas and amenities by installing cameras, gates, or having roaming patrols, (something the present security committee suggest we look at in future) these tools are meant to protect the common area assets, not individual residents, or their personal property.

It is the responsibility of every resident to safeguard their belongings and to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves.
LIFCO encourage residents to report crimes to the security committee. But keep in mind such reports should not be in lieu of contacting your security company and or SAPS.

LIFCO will be monitoring all crime patterns with SAPS and the security companies. To do this the security committee meet with SAPS together with all the security companies active in our suburbs, on a monthly basis. All relevant information will be shared with the residents.
The CCTV camera network for our suburbs have been finalised. 

General security ideas I suggest we discuss in future!

• Determine vulnerable areas and or possible security threats.
• List of security companies active in our suburbs and how big is their presence (This should be made available on the website)
• Regular meetings with all security companies. (This is happening)
• Monthly comparison on the efficiency and service of these companies to our residents. (This should be made available on the website)
• Availability of crime statistics (How and when do we share it should be discussed)
• Establishing a professional reaction team. Lets not be complacent. What happened in June 2021 can happen again!
• Establish street patrols (Must be structured and within the legal requirements)
• Discuss the merits regarding erecting security fencing to vulnerable areas in our suburb. (Including substations etc.)
• What complementary security requirements will be required to do this?
• How do we solve the vagrant problem!! Is it possible to create a database of them. This can be loaded onto the software of the facial recognition cameras.
• What can we do about the known drug problem?
• Engage with the relevant authorities to investigate the possibility of security companies to make arrests for hygiene, alcohol and or drug related infringements in our suburb.
• Compile a database of the workers/vagrants capabilities. Any resident wanting to employ one of them should be able to contact LIFCO. Lifco should keep a record of their skills and share this with the residents. A list of blacklisted criminals and or chancers should be kept and shared with the residents!
• The workers looking for employment will have to congregate at a predetermined demarcated area.
• Investigate the practicalities and cost of permanent armed security guards at our entrances.

Marketing

For various reasons the membership of LIFCO unfortunately reduced tremendously since 2018. From 250 paying members it is now down to 70. The contributing businesses reduced from 15 to 10.

This will unfortunately have a major impact on the sustainability of our existing projects and also on the successful completion of LIFCO’s suggested new projects. (This will include both LIFCO’s security, environmental and beautifying projects)

To assist in the planning of our marketing strategies a general household and business survey of our suburb was conducted:

• Freestanding residential houses +-1500
• Units in complexes +- 700
• Businesses:
  • In complexes +- 60
  • Operating from homes +- 90

Marketing

Erect a display cabinet with a box where residents can get documentation to join, leave suggestions and so on. This must be cleared and acted upon every day.

• Strubensvalley shopping centre
• Little Dalls shopping centre
• Engen garage
• BP garage
• Black boards (x 7)

Establish a list of catching messages to be applied to the boards. The messages should emphasize “what can residents do for each other” (To do this you have to join LIFCO) and not “what can LIFCO do for me”

Marketing on CCTV poles

• To list our security partners
• Allow advertising space for businesses to generate income for LIFCO.
• Banners at events (To save on cost we should have a standard message)

Use other businesses electronic display screens. Create the ability to market by having access to the following resident businesses data base:

• Estate agents
• Security companies
• Pre-school and schools
• Garages
• Pharmacies
• Doctors

Have a welcoming pack for all new residents (Discus merits if new to the area or new LIFCO members.) This must include a LIFCO badge, (for residence and vehicle) business promotions/gifts, list of businesses in our area, list of your direct neighbours name, street marshal name and number, security company valuation etc.

Have at least 4 events / functions a year. (Standardise them so residents can plan in advance)

Negotiate specials/discounts for pensioners and use it to LIFCO’s advantage when marketing.

Have a business forum. We should encourage “Use local”

Have a board and or sticker (property and vehicle) for LIFCO residential, business and complex members. We must then ensure that every member have and display one.

Once we have our goals in place all previous LIFCO members should be contacted to revive their membership.

Upgrade and make the business advertising page on face book and the website more enticing for businesses to advertise on. Define a contribution structure. The amount charged will depend on the commitment/contribution from the business.

Structure a business WhatsApp / Telegram group that will entice businesses to advertise on it. Think of a contribution strategy that will earn LIFCO income. (E.G you can only list on these groups if you contribute to LIFCO)

Sell advertising space on strategic fences and walls. E.G The walls on the properties at the Park area facing the park. The proposed fence on Witwatersrand street etc