Kenilworth Station Level Crossing Soon To Be Reinstated

Dear Residents

Please see the message below from MetroRail regarding the booms at the Kenilworth Station.

Please distribute this information to the wider audience about the level crossing that will be reinstated on 2 August 2019.

Background:

• Level crossing consisted of 3x sets of flashlights and 2x long steel booms (full booms) that closed the entire road
• The level crossing was fully operational but in December 2018 after experiencing severe number of attacks on cables and component theft & vandalism,  it resulted in the level crossing controller equipment burning and failing completely
• Due to obsolete equipment the Region could not repair the level crossing controller.

Reinstatement:

• The Region researched for methods to improve the system and opted to change the trackside equipment with current technologies such as latest boom technology and LED flashlights.
• The Region designed, procured and had to submit the design for approval prior to installation
• The system has been installed and has to be operationally tested by Professional Engineers
• Once tested it will be commissioned and handed over for safe operations of road users and trains on Friday night 2 August 2019

Community :

• We as the Infrastructure department request that the community circulate this information to everyone as an awareness campaign to understand how the newer technology will function in order to prevent road vehicles colliding with the booms resulting in damages to the system
• The near misses arises from road users not adhering to the flashlights
• System functionality for Kenilworth
• Train approaches and sends alarm to Crossing Attendant
• Crossing Attendant acknowledges alarm by switching flashlights on
• Flashlights will warn road users of an oncoming train for 8-10 seconds
• Upon completion of the 8-10seconds the2x entry booms(left hand side of road) will be depressed to close
• After 5 seconds the 2x exit booms(right hand side of road) closes
• Upon completion of the above actions the flashlights will be flashing and the road will be fully closed same as with the previous system
• We would appreciate if the community can assist by adhering to the flashlights so that we can obtain the life expectancy of what the system. Also to report perpetrators attempting to vandalize Rail Infrastructure equipment to our call centre listed below

Call Centre: 021 449 4026

Your co-operation and assistance will be highly appreciated.

HAVE YOU TALKED SECURITY WITH YOUR DOMESTIC WORKER OR CHILD CARER?

Home security is about more than just safeguarding your loved ones and your property. It should also include the safety of anyone who works for you, or carries out any work on your property. They are often home alone for hours at a time when the family is at work and at school.

Fidelity ADT urges all homeowners to make sure anyone who works on their property knows the basic principles of personal safety, so that they are familiar with how to act in an emergency.

It boils down to asking three easy but simple questions. The answers will determine whether or not your domestic employees or contractors are properly prepared.

You should ask them – what would they do if someone tried to illegally gain access to the property? Do they know where the panic buttons are, and how to call for help? If there is any kind of medical emergency, would they know how to respond?

There are five points that your employees should remember:

• Be careful of having unguarded conversations about your employer or the property you are working at. You never know who might be listening.
• Be observant and speak up if you see something suspicious anywhere in the Village.
• Use the camera on your cell-phone. If you see something or someone that appears to be out of place, take a photo.
• Don’t let your phone be a distraction. Pay attention to your surroundings.
• Never allow anyone onto the property or indoors unless they have an appointment or if they have a legitimate reason to be there, and your employer confirmed it for you.
• Exchange cell phone numbers with other domestic workers or child carers at properties adjacent or opposite so that you can alert each other of suspicious people or vehicles.

JENNI COLEMAN

Manager - Harfield Village Community Improvement District (HVCID)

Cel: 081 412 6109   E-mail: admin@hvcid.co.za

www.harfield-village.co.za

www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community

AUGUST IN THE GARDEN

We've been able to celebrate wonderful rain this Winter, and here's hoping there's more in store over the coming months. Such a relief to know that our dams and tanks are in better shape.

For those keen on planting, August heads towards Spring and the plant list expands as things slowly start warming up.

Here's the plant list:
Basil, Broad Beans, Beetroot, Butternut, Cape Gooseberry, Cauliflower, Carrots, Chard/Spinach, Celery, Chives, Chilli Pepper, Cucumber, Eggplant, Kale, Kohlrabi, Globe Artichokes, Leek, Leaf Mustard, Lettuce, Onion, Parsley, Parsnip, Peas, Potato, Pumpkin, Radish, Rhubarb, Sweetcorn, Sweet Pepper, Turnip, Tomato, Watercress, Watermelon

Happy growing!

Patchwork Group
Gabriella Garnett
076 2199 849 | gabriella.garnett@gmail.com

www.harfield-village.co.za www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community

REAL FREEDOM IS A HOME OF YOUR OWN

With “freedom” in the spotlight as SA heads to the polls next week, the question frequently arises as to how this translates for the individual in everyday life.

“The concept of freedom only really becomes tangible to most people when they are also free in financial terms,” says Rudi Botha, CEO of BetterBond, which is SA’s leading bond originator, “and we believe that one of the most important measures of such freedom is individual home ownership.

“And this is not just about the freedom from paying rent or not having to worry about being forced to move at an inconvenient time. A home of your own also symbolizes the fact that you are free to work, to spend or save your money as you please, and to build up your personal wealth.

“By extension, a high rate of homeownership is indicative of an economically-free society where investment, job creation and prosperity are on the rise and in which tax revenues can also increase to fund the ongoing improvement of health and other social services, access to education and protection of the environment, for the benefit of everyone in that society.”

Owning a home, he notes, enables the individual to use it as collateral to raise money to start a business, invest in more property or pay for further education for themselves or their children. “It is thus the cornerstone of personal wealth for most people and ensures them of a more secure old age. It can also be left to their heirs as a valuable inheritance – the kind of ‘start’ in life that all too few of SA’s young people now have.”

This is one of the reasons, says Botha, why BetterBond supports Khaya Lam, the national initiative started by the Freedom Foundation to ensure that all existing land and home owners in South Africa actually have a title deed to their property. See BetterBond.

“At the moment, StatsSA figures show that about 10m of the 16,2m households in SA live in homes that are owned or partly-owned. However, as many as 5m of these households do not have a title deed – and thus effectively have no guaranteed tenure of their own properties.

“They still live with the constant threat of eviction and dispossession, even from houses they have built themselves or council houses their families have lived in for decades, and they cannot sell and transfer these properties, use them as collateral or will them to their children. We really want to help change that situation.”

Meanwhile, he says, the creation of new homes to house the estimated 2m households still living in informal structures should have the support of all South Africans – not least because of the job creation potential of residential construction.

“International statistics show that for every apartment built, at least one permanent job is created either in construction or in ‘support’ sectors such as building and housing product manufacturing, transport, and professional services like banking, architecture and real estate. Every single-family home that is built yields almost three permanent jobs, while more homeowners would also mean more revenue for SA’s cash-strapped local authorities.

“Over their lifetime, single-family homes are estimated to generate at least R500 000 each just in local property taxes, and apartments to add around R200 000 each to municipal incomes. In addition, homeowners tend to spend their disposable incomes close to home, which provides support for local businesses and service providers.”

Taking all of these benefits into account, says Botha, the answer to the question about how freedom translates into real life is easy: “Freedom is, quite simply, a home of your own.”

Anne-Marie Bamber is Norgarb Properties dedicated Home Loans Consultant. She has over 15 years’ experience in assisting clients with their Home Loan needs and has placed many happy families in their dream homes.

Contact her today for no cost stress-free home-buying.
Anne-Marie Bamber
Home Loans consultant
Tel: +27 (0)21 851 3568 | Fax: +27 (0)21 441 1494 | Cell: +27 (0)82 071 1665
E-mail: anne-marie.bamber@betterlife.co.za

www.harfield-village.co.za

www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community

THE NEW TOBACCO BILL

Attention Employers: The New Tobacco Bill and How it Will Affect Workplace Smoking

In line with the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the South African legislature has drafted the Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill 2018 (“the Bill”). The Bill seeks to regulate public smoking, smoking in the workplace and the sale and advertising of tobacco and various electronic cigarettes. In the employment arena, the Bill introduces onerous obligations on employers with regards to workplace smoking: it prohibits smoking in workplace areas where it would pose a health, fire or other hazard. The failure of employers to create smoking policies in accordance with the Bill may result in fines and even imprisonment.

The Bill defines the “workplace” as:

“…any place in or on which one or more persons are employed and performs their work, whether for compensation or voluntary, and includes – 

(a) any corridor, lobby, stairwell, elevator, cafeteria, washroom or other common area used during or incidental to the course of employment or work; 
(b) any vehicle which is available for use for business or commercial purposes; and 
(c) any vehicle registered to the government.”

The definition of “smoke” has been expanded in the Bill to include electronic cigarettes and vapes. The Bill defines “smoke” as:

“Inhale, exhale, hold or- 

(a) otherwise have control over an ignited tobacco product or a heated but not ignited tobacco product that produces an emission of any sort; or 
(b) operate or otherwise have control over an electronic delivery system that produces an emission of any sort.”

The Bill further prohibits smoking in any open-air or enclosed spaces and any area within 10 metres from the entrance or exit of a building or window. This provision seeks to regulate common areas in a workplace such as a balcony or undercover parking area that smokers frequent during the day. This prohibition is applicable to any person at the workplace, which means that employers have to ensure that clients and visitors do not smoke in any of these areas either. The Bill states that employers bear the responsibility of ensuring that clients or visitors to a workplace are informed that no smoking is permitted in the specified workplace areas. An employer may also designate any outdoor space as an area in which smoking is prohibited with the requisite signage as prescribed by the Bill.

The Bill imposes further obligations on employers to ensure that:

- Any employees that do not want to be exposed to tobacco emissions are not exposed;
- It cannot be a condition of employment that any employee is required to work in an area in the workplace where smoking is allowed in terms of the law; and
- Employees cannot be expected to sign any indemnity for working in any area of the work place where smoking is permitted.

It is important that employers draft / revise smoking policies to be in line with the new Bill if and when it is enacted.

STBB Claremont



www.harfield-village.co.za
www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community

WOMEN'S DAY IN SOUTH AFRICA

 It is Women’s Day on 9th August in South Africa, so what can we learn from neuroscience about the brains of strong African women?

By Dr Samantha J. Brooks Ph.D.





The annual Women’s Day in South Africa happens again this year on the 9th August 2019, and what
better way to celebrate, than to think about the brains of strong women throughout the world who have challenged the status quo and left their mark indelibly on the world.  Think of Rosa Parks, the brilliant black woman in the US who, with bravery and grit, famously refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person during the infamous – akin to apartheid – Jim Crow laws.  And more recently Michelle Obama became the first black First Lady of the United States of America, pioneering her own social campaigns during her husband’s presidency.  In South Africa in 1932, Margaret Levyns became the first woman to be awarded a degree from the University of Cape Town for her thesis on Cape flora entitled, 'A taxonomic study of Lobostemon and Echiostachys'.  This was remarkable given the zeitgeist, especially in countries with a British influence that discouraged the admittance of women into higher education alongside men.  This idea was fostered at the time, by the likes of the revered UK physician Dr Henry Maudsley (see his Oxford University debate, ‘Sex in Mind and Education’) who said that a woman should not pursue intellectual activities alongside men at university, because the energy she consumes to do so will damage her  reproductive system and her mental health! Thank goodness strong women in the fair Cape and across the world continue to thrive in intellectual circles, proving that Dr Maudsley was wrong.

Women throughout history have faced comparable oppressive and discriminatory processes that the general black populace experienced during the apartheid years in South Africa.  And in other Western countries not so long ago, women could not buy property, gain a pension or go into a bar alone without the presence of a man.  And in some countries still, females are unable, without being arrested, to ride bicycles, drive a car or go out alone in public.  So how is it that some women are able to stand up against the tide of traditional societal pressure, to succeed and alter the prevailing views, despite the odds?  Think of women who grew up in a township, like Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, from Langa – a Cape Flats shanty town on the outskirts of Cape Town – who beat the odds to gain an education that included world class research at the prestigious Harvard University in the USA.  She then returned to Cape Town, to help lead the Truth and Reconcilliation Committee in the mid 1990s, and is now a leading Professor at Stellenbosch University.  And most recently, think of the current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, the ‘Fab Academic’ Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, an expert world-renowned mathematician who is leading processes to raise the confidence and work ethic in South African university students. How then might the brain and mind of such women work? Without placing them in a brain scanner, we can at least draw conclusions from brain imaging studies of people who demonstrate resilience – or grit – and courage in the face of adversity and long-standing challenges and firmly held traditional beliefs.

As a personality trait, grit involves the ability to strive to achieve long-term goals with passion and
perseverance and plays a crucial role in most forms of achievement. Neuroscientists have recently discovered that the right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) – a brain area at the top of your mid-forehead – is activated during an experiment to test grit. The DMPFC brain activity was associated with self-regulation, planning, goal setting and memory maintenance, allowing for reflection on past failures but with a counterfactual viewpoint.  In other words, people who demonstrate grit are able to keep themselves focussed, without losing their passion and belief in a greater goal, while at the same time not getting discouraged by past failures.  And so this pattern of brain activity might be the key to the success of strong women – it is not easy to change the world overnight, but a woman can learn to keep passionate and focussed on her long-term ambitions in the presence of adversity that tries to tell her to stop.  This is something to teach our daughters, as the world is only getting tougher for women, particularly in the post-Trump era.

So on this Women’s Day in South Africa, think of the women in your life who demonstrate grit on a daily basis – be it your wife, mother, sister, daughter, auntie, neighbour, shop-keeper, lawyer, bus driver, petrol station attendant, doctor, bank clerk, homeless person asking you for money at the robot with her baby.  Think of the things these women do on a daily basis – often without asking for praise and encouragement – to buck the traditional views held by some about a woman’s role in society.  Think of the women you encounter on Women’s Day this year, and celebrate their remarkable brains!  Happy Women’s Day Harfield Women!

Dr Samantha Brooks is a UK neuroscientist in Harfield Village, specialising in the neural correlates of impulse control from eating disorders to addiction.  For more information you can contact Samantha at: www.drsamanthabrooks.com.

Click to read all previous articles by Dr Samantha J. Brooks Ph.D.

www.harfield-village.co.za
www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community

URINARY OBSTRUCTION IN MALE CATS

Most cats hate the cold, wet weather and it is not uncommon for them to relieve themselves in inappropriate places or to just hold back!

This month we are going to talk about urinary obstruction (blocked bladder) in male cats. This is quite a common problem particularly during winter months and can be life threatening if not treated as an emergency.

What is a blocked bladder? 

A blocked bladder is caused when some kind of obstruction occurs in the urethra (the small tube that drains urine from the bladder and out of the penis) making it impossible for urine to be expelled. The bladder fills to capacity and feels like a hard tennis ball in the cat’s abdomen. Huge pressure is put on the kidneys which can be permanently damaged. The bladder can rupture due to the pressure.

Complete obstruction can cause the death of a cat within 24 hours.



What causes this condition?

Due to their anatomy male cats are more likely to develop urethral obstruction
than female cats. The obstruction is often caused by the formation of crystals, sand or grit, mucus, small stones and inflammatory material that have formed in the kidneys.

Some factors that are thought to influence the formation of the above are:

• cats eating an unbalanced diet
• indoor cats
• overweight cats
• stressed cats nervous/ highly strung cats
• cats in a multicat household
• cats that have recurring bladder infections


What are the symptoms?

Depending on how long and how severe the obstruction has become your cat will show the following symptoms:

• frequent trips to the litter tray
• no  urine in the litter tray when  you know they’ve been in there
• meowing  and/or  straining while in the litter box (many owners mistake this for a sign of constipation)
• excessive licking their penis

• loss of appetite
• sudden onset excessive drinking
• vomiting
• abdominal pain – reluctance to be picked up or handled
• hiding away
• eventually collapse
• death

If you notice any of these symptoms you should make an appointment with your vet immediately:

How is this condition treated?

Cats that have a urinary obstruction need immediate emergency treatment. 

Once your vet has examined your cat and established that there is an obstruction, your cat will need to be hospitalised, sedated or given a general anaesthetic so that a urinary catheter can be placed into the urethra. The catheter enables the vet to flush out the urethra thus removing any obstruction. This is an extremely delicate procedure. Your vet may need to give your cat intravenous fluids to help support the kidneys. Once the obstruction has been removed the urinary catheter may be left in the cat temporarily until your vet is happy that the cat is able to urinate freely on its own. Daily flushing of the bladder may be needed to remove debris that may cause further obstruction.

A microscopic evaluation of the urine will be done to determine what was causing the obstruction i.e. if it was inflammatory material, gravely calculi or tiny stones. If it is the latter the vet may wish to take an x-ray of the bladder to see if there are more stones and may try to determine the type of stone (calculi) .All of this information will enable your vet to treat your cat most effectively.

In some cases the bladder will repeatedly block despite medical treatment, in these instances your vet may recommend a surgical procedure called a perineal urethrostomy, which is a surgical widening of the urethra to allow small crystals, mucus plugs and even small stones to be passed with the urine.

Depending on the initial cause and extent of damage caused by the blockage the long term prognosis for these cats is usually  good. Particularly beneficial is the use of prescription diets specially formulated to reduce the risk of crystal formation.

YOUR VET WILL BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU THE ADVICE YOU NEED!

Kenilworth Veterinary Clinic

www.harfield-village.co.za

www.facebook.com/harfield.village.community