Homeowners of Marloth Park meet to tackle pressing matters

MARLOTH PARK – On Saturday, as expected by many local property owners, tempers flared at the annual Marloth Park Property Owners Association (MPPOA) meeting. However, things quickly calmed down and everything continued smoothly.

The meeting started with deliberation surrounding the voting process for the new committee and after consultation with the attendees, moved on to the chairman’s report.

Outgoing chairman, Pat Wilmans stated that the past year had been filled with challenges, but she was proud of the committee and what it had achieved. She mentioned that the recent game reduction was the largest one ever undertaken in Marloth Park but added that thanks to cooperation and communication between all parties involved, the quotas were almost reached.

“The attempt to have the waste-disposal site moved to Parkland within Marloth Park was taken on in full force and stopped simply due to cooperation and passion of the property owners and MPPOA’s resolve to stick to the wants and needs of the members and property owners. Hopefully this year the rehabilitation and the transformation of this site will be into a transit one,” Wilmans said.

The issues of law enforcement, access control and service delivery were also touched upon. Wilmans stated that service delivery in Marloth Park faces huge challenges due to aging infrastructure and lack of planning.

“This has resulted in insufficient supply of both water and electricity. Nkomazi Local Municipality (NLM) came to investigate and uncovered problems such as properties with no meters and others with illegal connections with some paying for water without even having any type of development on the stand whatsoever,” she said.

A forum with the various stakeholders in the area, such as the honorary rangers, conservancy and NLM, was set up to discuss issues affecting the whole settlement and to ensure that projects are not being duplicated and that all parties stay informed.

Feedback was then given on behalf of the community policing forum (CPF). The representative stated that crime levels had fluctuated over the past year, but that the numbers were not unusual.

Cooperation between the SAPS and the CPF has grown and a new community watch was put into place. According to the representative, the organisation has already had a positive impact on the fight against crime in Marloth Park. A new CPF committee will be chosen at the start of April and people are urged to get involved. Monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month at 16:00, in the Henk van Rooyen boardroom and residents and property owners are welcome to attend.

The committee for the new year was voted for and Thinus Grobler, Tony Hayman, Liz Balaam, Denis Goffinet, Koos Pienaar, Alison Fitzgeerald, Sarel van der Walt, Christo Kittschoff, JJ van Rensburg and Martin Ducan (in absencia) received the most votes.

Documents pertaining to the meeting can be viewed on www.mppoa.info.