Crime reported in January 2020
Housebreaks
Serfontein Street
Hanna Road
Steenkamp Street
Rushby Street
Benade Drive
Van Iddekinge Avenue
Jan Enslin Street
Attempted housebreaks
Mc Arthur Street
Van Laun Crescent
Theft of motor vehicles
Gustav Crescent
De Jager Street
Theft from motor vehicles
Benade Drive
Mc Arthur Street
Our 2020 initiatives
PSHB identification
The Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB) has invaded South Africa and is killing our trees. The FNA encourages all residents to check their trees for infection and report their observations to us. This will allow up to create a database of infected areas which will help decrease the spread of this beetle.
Adopt/plant a tree
Trees are the lungs of the earth and they create breathable air in this time of climate crisis, therefore, we are offering to replace dead sidewalk trees at zero cost. Contact us to inspect your sidewalk tree if you think it might be dead. We encourage residents to adopt newly planted trees to keep them watered and healthy. We also aim to plant 200 PSHB-resistant trees in our neighbourhood by the end of 2020.
Adopt a park
Adopt your favourite Fichardt Park park to help us create a more beautiful neighbourhood. Your contributions will be put to work to cut your park’s grass, spray thorns and paint play equipment if there are.
Visit http://fichardtpark.org/initiatives/ for more information about these initiatives.
Recycling
Bi-monthly recycling Saturdays have been a long standing practice in our neighbourhood and have even attracted residents from other neighbourhoods! We encourage all our residents to start recycling.
Visit http://fichardtpark.org/about-us/services/recycling/ to find out what you can and cannot recycle.
Status of the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB) since discovery in Fichardt Park in March 2019
After the discovery of the PSHB in Fichardt Park, the FNA took leadership in raising awareness about the PSHB beetle and a small task team was established to coordinate and arrange awareness sessions. We communicated with Prof Wijnand Swart: Professor of Plant Sciences, President of the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology and in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State.
In cooperation with Prof Swart, the FNA arranged an information/awareness session to make the general public aware of the threat that we are facing with the PSHB. More than 50 people attended this very informative session on 13 May 2019. Bloem News reported on the meeting and a database was developed with the locations, and positive sightings as well as possible infestations. All the information received were accompanied by pictures of the trees that might or might not be infested by the PSHB. The idea was to see what the rate of infestation in Mangaung is, and the result is scary.
The task team met on a regular basis and decided that a follow-up awareness session needed to be planned. The next information/awareness took place on 16 October 2019 and 61 people attended this session. Prof Swart created awareness about the PSHB and Dr Gert Marais (UFS) gave information on the PSHB and Pecan nut farming. Mr. Hilton Fryer from Plant Survey came from Johannesburg to deliver his input on his mobile App for reporting PSHB infested trees. After this session, various articles on the PSHB saw the light in local newspapers and a scientific article was published on the UFS website.
The challenge is larger than expected, therefore, a meeting was scheduled with the Mangaung Metro, Parks Department, The Free State University as well as SANBI. This meeting took place on 18 February 2020 where the way forward was discussed.
For more information on the PSHB and the trees that are in danger, please mail Duart Hugo at duarthugo99@gmail.com. Furthermore, in order to create an accurate database, you can book an appointment to have the trees in your garden checked at http://fichardtpark.org/campaigns/pbsh-identification/
Presently there are no scientifically proven effective pesticides to combat this invasive beetle. An article will appear in our next FNA magazine with all the relevant information on the PSHB.
All people on the database will be informed of new developments in the combat of this destructive little beetle.
Duart Hugo
Residential Waste removal information
Residents are often unsure about the MMM’s waste removal requirements, especially in light of the MMM’s recent irregular waste-removal practices. Even though the whole of Fichardt Park is meant to be serviced on a Thursday, the FNA usually receives information late on Wednesday on which parts of Fichardt Park will be serviced and relays this message to members early Thursday morning.
Waste removal boundaries
- For waste removal purposes, Mangaung divided Metro Fichardt Park into two – North and South.
- South means the next border streets: Eric Rosendorf, Olive Grinter, Van Iddekinge and Amie Pretorius and all the other streets that fall within this border. The Casino is on the south side for these purposes. These are in municipal blocks 8-14.
- The North means Van Laun, Du Plooy, Van Rippen and Usmar. This includes Benade Drive and all the other streets that fall within the border streets. These are in municipal blocks 1-7.
- If you are ever unsure where your group falls, please contact our office. To check where your block falls, please visit http://fichardtpark.org/about-us/maps/
Type of waste the MMM removes
- The municipality will only remove a maximum of five black bags per household.
- Your black bags will not be collected if they are unreasonably full or too heavy.
- With regards to garden waste, Mr. Sello More (Head of Directorate: Solid Waste & Fleet Management), on the behest of the FNA and city counsellors, gave the following statement:
“Unfortunately our new trucks are not sufficiently adapted to carry garden waste. In fact, such waste kills its compacting capacity. Whereas bylaws do allow for the disposing of such minimally, they are a risk for our regular collection and our supplier will nullify our warrantees if we continue to carry such.”
Chante van Biljon
