April has felt like a proper seasonal handover. The heat and brightness of summer have started to ease, replaced by cooler mornings, gentler light and the first signs of autumn colour in the trees. It has also been a strange rainfall year so far. January and February were notably dry, then March and April more than made up for it, with April recording more than double the average rainfall for the month over the past 20 years. Nature does like to balance the books, although not always neatly.

We hope residents have enjoyed some time off over the holidays and have had the opportunity to enjoy the parks, streets and public spaces that make our neighbourhood so special. Delta Park, the Braamfontein Spruit and the surrounding green corridors continue to be used daily by walkers, runners, cyclists, families, children and dog walkers.

These spaces do not look after themselves. A great deal of the CRA’s work happens quietly in the background: following up with the City, coordinating residents and service providers, working with security partners, supporting clean-ups, engaging on development applications, and helping to keep our community informed and organised.

This month’s newsletter gives residents a sense of what the CRA, together with our partners and residents, has been working on.

Membership, PayStack and Keeping the CRA Sustainable

Many residents will have seen our recent communications regarding the CRA’s migration from PayFast to PayStack. PayFast has become increasingly difficult for the CRA to manage, with recurring payment issues, lapsed subscriptions and limited administrative visibility creating real challenges for the us. Over the past year, we estimate that these issues have cost the CRA close to R100,000 in lost membership income.

New CRA subscriptions will now be signed up through PayStack. Our intention is to move all existing PayFast subscriptions across to PayStack over time, but this does not happen automatically. Existing PayFast members will need to sign up again on PayStack when they are ready, after which we can cancel the PayFast subscription on request (please email us to arrange cancellation and please include the mobile number or email address you used to sign up).

This has not been a small administrative exercise. CRA committee members have poured many hours into the documentation, verification and paperwork required to register the CRA properly on the PayStack platform. We believe, however, that this effort will be worthwhile and that PayStack will provide a more reliable, sustainable and long-term solution for the CRA’s membership needs.

Thank you to every resident, household, complex and business that supports the CRA. Your contributions are what allow us to do the practical work reflected in this newsletter.
You can access the membership options here: www.cra.org.za/join

Public Spaces, Clean-ups and Park Work

Our parks, greenbelts and public spaces remain one of the CRA’s major areas of focus.

Over the past month, significant clean-up work has taken place in the area north-east of Jan Smuts Avenue, around the section of Athole Avenue running adjacent to the Braamfontein Spruit on the Craighall side. This area had become increasingly neglected, with accumulated debris and inappropriate activity affecting both the safety and usability of the public space. Working with Bubele Africa, residents, our partners and the relevant authorities, the CRA has helped drive a substantial clean-up of this area. This included the removal of large volumes of debris and the successful intervention in relation to an illegal shebeen that had been operating in the park.

Further clean-ups have also taken place along the northern corridor between Bantam Road and the weir, as well as in the school forest area, where a significant amount of debris was removed.

This kind of work is often difficult, slow and unglamorous, but it makes a real difference. Public spaces that are neglected quickly become unsafe and unusable. Public spaces that are cleaned, monitored and actively used become safer, more welcoming and more valuable to the whole community.

Jozi Trails, the Spruit and the Value of Partnerships

The CRA has supported Jozi Trails for several years and has resolved to increase its annual contribution in 2026. This is a good example of how the CRA’s relationships with other organisations help multiply impact rather than duplicate effort. Jozi Trails, Friends of Delta, Bubele Africa, residents, local businesses, security partners and the CRA each play different but complementary roles in keeping Delta Park, the Braamfontein Spruit and adjoining public spaces cleaner, safer and more accessible.

The Braamfontein Spruit and adjoining public spaces are among the most important shared assets in our community. Keeping them usable and well managed requires cooperation, practical funding and consistent follow-through.

New Fence at the First Craighall Scout Group Greenbelt Entrance

One of the most significant recent CRA projects has been the installation of a new fence at the greenbelt entrance next to the First Craighall Scout Group, near the corner of Buckingham and Hamilton, close to Rattray Weir and Rattray Park.

The CRA funded this fence from resident contributions at a cost of approximately R50,000. This is a meaningful investment in the safety and better management of a vulnerable access point into the greenbelt and Braamfontein Spruit area.

This area has unfortunately been used as a movement corridor by criminals, including the well-known “cat burglar” who has affected a number of residents in the broader area. The new fence forms part of a broader effort, together with CAP and JMPD, to improve public-space safety and make access points easier to manage. The gate arrangement includes both a pedestrian gate and a vehicle access gate. These gates will be controlled by CAP. Vehicle access will be restricted and will only be permitted where appropriate permission has been obtained from City Parks. The pedestrian gate will be opened in the early morning and locked again in the evening, in line with City Parks guidelines.

This is exactly the kind of practical intervention the CRA exists to support: targeted, local, visible and funded by residents for the benefit of the neighbourhood.

If you would like to make a once-off contribution toward the cost of the First Craighall Scout Group / Buckingham-Hamilton fence, please use this link: https://paystack.shop/pay/spruit-scout-hall-fence

Beaufort Avenue Walkway Project

The Beaufort Avenue walkway beautification and safety project was initiated by Beaufort Avenue residents and is now strongly underway. It is a good example of residents identifying a practical local improvement and taking ownership of the public environment around them.

The CRA is supporting the project together with Bubele Africa. As part of the initial seeding work, the CRA and Bubele Africa undertook the first clean-up and preparation of the area. This involved two full Saturdays of work and the removal of approximately five loads of vegetation and rubble.

This type of groundwork is essential before any meaningful beautification can happen, and it comes at a real cost. It is also exactly the type of practical, local project where resident energy, CRA coordination and trusted implementation partners can combine to make a visible difference.

Projects like this improve walkability, safety and the appearance of the neighbourhood, while also encouraging residents to reclaim and care for the public spaces around them.

Dunkeld Tower / Erf 203 Dunkeld West

A major focus for the CRA has been the proposed 20-storey development on Erf 203 Dunkeld West Extension 2, commonly referred to as the “Dunkeld Tower”.

The approved application permits a 20-storey building with 196 dwelling units, inclusionary housing units, a restaurant, sports and recreation club, spa and ancillary uses, on a site of only 5,633m². The approved floor area is 33,798m².

The CRA objected strongly to the application and encouraged affected residents to participate in the formal objection process, resulting in approximately 40 objections being submitted. The CRA also appointed a professional town planner to assist with technical input and worked closely with JoburgCAN, a division of OUTA, in preparing and supporting the objection process.

Following the Tribunal’s approval, the CRA lodged a formal appeal. The appeal does not simply say “we do not like tall buildings”. It raises serious concerns about the process, the information relied upon, the infrastructure assumptions, and whether the approval properly applied the City’s own planning policies.

The CRA’s appeal raises, among other things, concerns about discrepancies in the water and sewer calculations, the use of a much lower floor area than the approved development rights, the possible understatement of residential infrastructure impact, the absence of proper evaluation of the City Power supply implications, and the lack of proper scrutiny of the approved zoning conditions.

The CRA also raised concern that the approved 20-storey height is a substantial departure from the applicable SDF development guidelines for the regional node, where the relevant guideline range is recorded as 3 to 10 storeys. The approval also appears to exceed the municipal planner’s recommendation of 15 storeys, without clear explanation in the approval material.

The CRA is not opposed in principle to appropriate development within the regional node. However, development must be responsible, properly assessed, and aligned with the City’s own Spatial Development Framework. Our concern remains that a 20-storey building of this scale would place further pressure on already strained municipal services and would fundamentally alter the character of the surrounding area.

This process has already cost the CRA approximately R15,000, including professional town planning input. We believe this is an important and necessary use of CRA funds, but we would welcome contributions from residents who share our concern about the impact of this development.
Dunkeld Tower objection and appeal contribution link: https://paystack.shop/pay/townplanning

This matter is a clear example of why active civic participation matters. When residents object, attend meetings, support the CRA and contribute toward expert input, the community’s voice becomes much harder to ignore.

The proposed site forthe 20 storey building

Dunkeld Bowls Club

There has also been important community engagement around the Dunkeld Bowls Club site in Dunkeld West. Many residents will know that there is currently a vacancy at the site. Our Ward 90 Councillor, Renate van Onselen, has been extremely helpful, together with CRA committee members, in engaging with the Johannesburg Property Company process.

A public consultation meeting was held and more than 100 residents attended. This was very encouraging. It is always positive when residents arrive, participate and make their views known in a constructive way.

The message from residents was clear: the community does not want the site to become a drinking venue or a night club. Residents want appropriate, community-sensitive use of the property, taking into account the surrounding residential area and the impact any future use may have on neighbours.

Photo: Google search

CRA Website and Community Chatbot

We are also excited to share that the CRA is working on a community chatbot to help residents find answers more easily.

The committee has already spent many hours building a tool that can answer many of the common questions residents have: how to log issues, who to contact, where to find information, how to report infrastructure problems, and how to navigate the various City processes that affect our neighbourhood. We need to complete the last step, which is linking this chatbot with a user interface that will be easy for our residents to use.

If there are any residents who are tech savvy or interested in helping us with this, please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

This work builds on improvements already made to the CRA website. Please visit www.cra.org.za, have a look around, and explore the information already available, including guidance on logging issues and engaging with the City.

Over the coming months, we hope to launch the chatbot as another practical way to make CRA information more accessible and useful to residents.

Thank You

Thank you to every resident, household, complex and business that supports the CRA.

Your contributions help fund public-space improvements, security infrastructure, planning objections, park maintenance, civic engagement, communication, and the many smaller interventions that make our neighbourhood better.

We love this community, and we are proud of what residents continue to achieve together. The more people who participate, the stronger, safer and more effective our neighbourhood becomes.