It was touch and go for a moment at the Greater Table View Action Forum’s (GTAF) annual general meeting last week with a last-minute scramble to sign up new members to form the quorum needed to vote in a management committee.
Karen Davis, who stepped down as chair but co-ordinated the vote on Wednesday March 15, said it had been a stressful moment, “but in the end it turned out well” when five new members signed on to make up the quorum of 36.
The 12-strong management committee are: Martin Bar, Rhonda Knott, Nthabiseng Matshoge, Jolene Page, Bianca Pearce, Brad Peng, Simon Bloomer, Samantha Davis, Pip Outen, Stephen Twine, Ray de Beer and Ursula Venter. Mr Bar has lived in the the area for 40 years, Ms Outen for 30 and Mr Bloomer for 18. In their pre-election manifestos, the new committee members pitched safety and security as their top concern in the mushrooming area.
Many had left the Table View Ratepayers’ Association last year following feuding within it (“Community welcomes the Greater Table View Action Forum,” Tabletalk, December 14, and “GTAF hears City plans,” Tabletalk, February 15 ).
In her manifesto, Ms Page said she believed in “honesty and transparency” and did not support any “hidden agendas”.
The community should “stand together” to make sure the neighbourhood “remains a place where we want to raise our children”.
Ms Matshoge, who moved to Table View three years ago from Pretoria, said: “I am not a politician nor do I align myself with a political party. I am all about community work and working together to make for a better community for our families to live in.”
Mr Bloomer said residents should spend more time meeting and getting to know each other and less time sniping at one another on social media.
Before the vote, Ward 107 councillor Nicky Rheeder told residents the City would be contributing to a big capital investment in Marine Circle to draw more residents and tourists.
“It will mean better access to the beachfront,” she said.
There were also plans, with the involvement of the Department of Social Development, to do ID checks on street people to “start working with them on a long-term project”.
She appealed to residents not to put anything in their bins on bin day that could be sold, as bin scratchers often pull apart discarded electrical appliances for one small part and scattered the remains in public areas.
Ms Rheeder said many residents were still wasting water and any leaks spotted from public drains should be reported immediately.
Asked by Mr Peng what would happen if the water ran out, Ms Rheeder replied: “We’ll never get to a point where the water will completely run out. The City is making all sorts of plans.”
Ward 113 councillor Dr Joy McCarthy added that there were “many underground wells and water sources that fall under the national government’s jurisdiction that could be accessed, given the authorisation”.