The Northcliff Residents’ Association (NRA), formerly known as the Northcliff Ratepayers’ Association held its first Annual General Meeting (AGM).
According to the NRA chairperson, Oscar Plange, the meeting was ‘quite eventful’ and well-attended.
At the AGM, a new committee was elected and some members who were in interim positions were made permanent. In addition, the association’s constitution was approved.
New NRA core committee members:
- Chairperson – Oscar Plange
- Vice-chairperson – Karien Casey
- Secretary – Vernon Korff
- Treasurer – Wilhelm de Kock.
Plange reiterated the NRA’s purpose is to help property owners improve the area for living, business and investment purposes.
He said this will be done through approaching relevant authorities and representatives to make sure the area receives its rightful services to improve the community’s environment.
He further explained that the association would like to be more involved in financial decisions made by the City of Johannesburg regarding their area as they are not happy with the level of service delivery, maintenance and infrastructure development they are currently receiving.
Plange said the present situation is that the current administration and the officials are at loggerheads due to the administration changing in 2016, while its officials stayed behind. He explained this happened despite officials needing to be politically unaligned.
The association is subsequently looking forward to working with the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) regarding some of Ward 88’s issues.
Plange told the Northcliff Melville Times the NRA’s current plan of action is to first and foremost, address Northcliff and its surrounding areas’ billing issues, as the problem is a fiscal black hole.
Issues the NRA plan on addressing:
- Service delivery
- Infrastructure development
- Capital spending
- Integrated development planning involvement
- Property evaluation
- Rates policies
- Membership size and representation
- Let’s Work initiative
- Public relations strategy
- Upcoming Ward 88 councillor by-election.
With regard to the by-election, Plange plans to run as an independent Ward 88 candidate.
“We feel that doing this would better represent the residents in the area – having an internal ear and a voice. Representing them in council would be the internal ear and the voice would be the association,” he explained.
He said should he win, he would like to be involved in as many portfolios as possible for the good of the community. In addition, he stated that he is not interested in a ward councillor’s salary and will donate his entire salary to the association in order for them to provide professional services to the community.
Plange said they would also pump quite a bit of funding into getting a communications person should he win, as well as various ad-hoc initiatives in the ward.
Lastly, the association will be creating an election manifesto, which will soon be available to the public to comment on before it is officially published.
Ultimately, Plange and his team of 15 professional NRA committee members look to make a difference in the community to secure a bright future for its residents.
Details: northcliff.org.za; oscar@northcliff.org.za; Northcliff Residents’ Association Facebook page
