It's Heritage Month, the evenings are stretching out, and Melville does spring better than most places do summer. Whatever else is going on, this is a good few weeks to be here. Welcome to Melville Untold, your reason to walk down the road tonight.

In this week’s newsletter,

— Aubrey Moloto, Caroline Koma

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The Melville Residents' Association held its AGM on Wednesday 2 September at the Kruisgemeente church, and it ran close to three hours. The MRA, the Melville Business Association, the Melville Security Initiative and Beagle Watch all reported back, then took questions. 

It fell on the night before the last Melville Art Mile. Unfortunately, we missed it, so this article is based on the presentation for the evening. We feel it’s important that even though you couldn’t make it, you at least get the gist of the matters discussed and can be empowered to raise your voice or even lend a helping hand. 

Why Annual Membership Matters

The MRA describes itself as "first and foremost, an advocacy organisation representing the interests of residents". It engages officials, makes formal submissions, escalates failures and, when necessary, tries to "make enough noise that an issue becomes difficult to ignore". It's blunt about who carries that: "Every single person serving on the MRA Committee is a volunteer. Nobody is employed by the MRA to do this work." Fees fund extra clean-ups and repairs, and legal costs when a matter goes to tribunal.

Before the event, on the local chat group, someone asked: "Seems I need to pay R350 per person to become a MRA member and have a Beagle Watch number to attend the AGM?"

Chairman, Darryl Gouws, then clarified that the monthly community meetings are open to every resident, member or not. The AGM is the Association's formal annual meeting, so that one is for paid-up members. "And just to clarify, it's R350 per household, not per person."

If you're on Beagle Watch, part of your fee already covers MRA membership, and you just hand over your Beagle number. Everyone else pays R350 a year through this payment portal here.

Land Use: Five Objections, One Result

Lone Poulsen took the room through the year's land use applications. The MRA objected to five, and four are still at tribunal: 50 student units on Lothbury, a student development in Auckland Park, a motorcycle repair workshop on 3rd, and a conversion in Richmond, for about 320 students.

The fifth came back. 29 4th Avenue was proposed as "Special" zoning for shops, a restaurant, offices and eight residential units. After objections, the City refused it in August and approved Business 4 instead: offices and four residential units only.

Lone was frank about the limits. The MRA's role is "advocacy, oversight and escalation, not enforcement". Only the City can inspect and act, and that gap runs through the whole watchlist, from the new events activity on 7th Avenue to the contravention notice already issued at the old De La Crème corner. (The Artisan)

Liquor: A Crisis Meeting, And What Came After

In July, the MRA and the MBA pulled the Gauteng Liquor Board, the Liquor Officer, Environmental Health, the ward councillor, MSI and JMPD by-law enforcement into one room. Commitments were made. The follow-up is still running.

The position, in the MRA's own words: "We are not anti-business, and we are not anti-liquor." It wants one rule for everybody. Trade responsibly, respect your neighbours, comply with your licence. Enforcement is where it stalls, and the presentation named Brixton SAPS and JMPD directly.

Security: 91 Incidents In Four Months

We hate talking about crime, but we gotta do what we gotta do. It’s Jozi, and any big city is plagued by various levels of crime. Danny Nunes brought numbers for days. Between April and July, MSI recorded 91 incidents across Melville and Auckland Park North: 21 in April, 24 in May, 20 in June, 26 in July. One every 28 to 36 hours, depending on the month.

84.6% happened between 18:00 and 06:00. Thursday is the worst day at 30.8%, and Monday recorded nothing at all. Residential properties accounted for 72%. Theft of motor vehicles led to nine incidents, and street robbery to six. If you have those highly desired cars (Polo/Golf GTI, Nissan NP200, Hilux, Suzuki [all makes], Toyota Cross, Ford Ranger, Hyundai i10), you really shouldn’t be parking your car outside and/or unattended.

The other side of the ledger: 704 patrol hours, 12 emergency responses, and 16 garages found standing open and reported. MSI takes reports on 066 448 3249.

Safe Streets is still waiting on the JRA, whose decision has been pending since around April. Nora Hanke Louw now coordinates it, and four workstreams are ready to move the day approval lands.

Everything Else In The Room

Advocate Derek Milne put the water crisis to Helen Zille at a Johannesburg Country Club question session, pushed her party to take Joburg Water and Rand Water to court, then met her privately about the MRA joining in. He also sat in a JoburgCan meeting of residents' associations weighing class actions against the City.

Cynthia Rose's Physical Environment plan runs to March 2027 and asks something small of all of us: keep the 15 metres in front of your property clean, and report what's broken in it.

The MBA's Jovana Korac and Oliver Quambusch counted the wins: The Happening, two new running clubs, the Art Mile, cleaner early-morning streets, Scala’s (Now, Acala) reopening, the new hardware store on 7th, and Melville 130 next month. Noise around the strip stays the sore point.

They're Short Of People

The last slide was a recruitment ad. There are vacancies on the committee, and the pitch was deliberately low-bar: you don't need to be an expert, and you don't have to take on everything, just pick the bit you care about. Put your hand up here.

The same man who'd queried the R350 five days earlier went. On Sunday morning he posted this to the group, unprompted:

"I was at the MRA meeting last Wednesday... after an almost 3-hour gathering of presentations, questions and answers, I want to say thank you for all the sincere and unyielding support and efforts made by a team that is not only tenacious but does it out of kindness because they care, and receives little thanks and no monetary reward."

I love it when perceptions are changed through actually getting up and going to see the thing for yourself! Were you in the room? Reply and tell us what we missed.

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For more updates as the week goes on, visit our Melville Pulse event calendar

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We last checked in with local, living, legendary band The Brother Moves On, all the way back in issue 2 of Melville Untold. After 93 issues, we finally got to lock in with Mellies resident and one of the biggest Melville icons still living here today: TBMO’s lead singer Siyabonga Mthembu. After the hiatus of That Funk Tuesdays, the band is making a return to home turf with a daytime event right here in our kasi.

First, exciting news: The group has finished recording their new album and is putting on the final touches, aiming for a release around February or March next year. This upcoming event features grooves from the new record alongside a live collaboration with DJ and instrumentalist Cool Affair, a multi-faceted artist the band came up with.

The DJ lineup includes another big Melville return to the super-talented scratch DJ Jab-A-Jaw, alongside Jam G, Kaf and Dendi, and the event is partnering with Nanola Wines, so some ticket options include a bottle. Merchandise and CDs will also be on sale. The day runs from 2 pm to 10 pm, keeping the vibe in the neighbourhood lively ‘til the perfect time to let the clubs take centre stage. (or residents sleep?)

The event also links The Brother Moves On with the Resource Gallery and ERF/350, creating what Siya describes as a cultural trifecta in the local community. Connecting with Resource made sense, he says, because the band built its identity playing rooftops and art galleries. When COVID hit, nine months of planned international tours, including three Europe runs, two US tours and one to Japan, were cancelled. Those cancellations pushed Siya and Jab-A-Jaw to start That Funk Tuesdays so they could keep performing directly in their own hood. The event took off like a house on fire. I still haven’t attended a more packed or entertaining event in Melville yet!

Siya considers Melville his true home, the place he’s lived longer than anywhere else. He prefers creating intimate events in the residential spaces where people actually live rather than on the commercial strip. Looking ahead, he plans to step back from major touring at 50 while continuing to play in the neighbourhood as a safe space to try things. After travelling the world, he says, “there’s nothing like home,” and he wants youth to see that great things can happen right here in their own community.

While we wait for the next first Thursday Melville Art Mile (Thursday 1 October 2026, kicking off 4 days before the hood officially turns 130. Please check in soon for an update on the M130, but for now:

Here’s a snapshot of key spots along the Melville Art Mile route:

Others Not On The Mile

Die Pienk Kerk and Gallery 1902 often host live music or openings.

Melville Mudroom hosts world-class pottery classes, which include pottery wheel demos, clay play, ceramic workshops, First Fridays open day and more.

The Joburg Artist Market has their weekly Weekend market together with JCW and often hosts creative events at the Rooftop Gallery.

Rounding out the scene is Tinsel and the Melpark Heights collective. The Trov has beautiful African ornaments, sculptures and ceramic exhibitions too!

Between now and 1 October, you can already drop into many of these spaces during regular hours for current exhibitions, weekend markets at 27 Boxes, pottery or print sessions, and the general Melville creative buzz. 

The October Art Mile will kick off the Melville 130 Birthday weekend; More on that soon.

Three failures, one week. The water went, the power went, and the fibre confused everyone. Here's what actually happened and what you need to do about it.

Let's start with what's actually happening right now, because the situation has shifted since the chaos of last week.

Councillor Candidate Jonathan Thompson, who's been tracking this thing daily on the Melville council groups, says the pressure has actually improved, relatively speaking. "This has probably been the best water pressure supply that has come through since the emergency valve replacement on the 3rd of September," he told us.

He's been running WhatsApp polls to gather resident data and submit it to Joburg Water, "just to show what is happening from a resident's perspective in Melville and the surrounding communities."

But the relief was short-lived. Eikenhof went down again, though luckily not for long.

"They stopped pumping at around half past 6," JT said. "I believe around 12:00, 1:00 this morning, power was restored and Rand Water had started resuming their pumping operations. The Commando system has held up fairly well after that outage."

He's still trying to get a proper answer from Joburg Water. "I tried to get more information out of them by email yesterday," he said. "I will be trying to get a further update from Johannesburg Water on as to what the next process is for Johannesburg Water to either give an update on why the water supply pressure is still this low." As we write this, we had water for 12 hours on 3rd Avenue for the first time this week. It then went again this morning [Tuesday]. [Update: it came back again last night, and it's gone again, as of this Thursday morning]

Things Got Worse Before It Got Better

Monday brought the first bit of good news: power came back at Rand Water's Eikenhof pump station, which is the tap at the top of the chain for all of us.

Tuesday undid it. A major burst pipe, again, this time on Beyers Naude Drive at the corner of Judith Road. Joburg Water did repair it the same day, which is worth saying again, because the complaint is usually the opposite. By Tuesday afternoon, Eikenhof was pumping at full capacity again.

Then the poll came back, and it's the most useful number in this whole story. Jonathan asked residents a simple question on Tuesday evening: Do you have water supply? Of 301 people who answered, 214 said nothing at all. Fifty-one had low pressure, seven were intermittent, and 29 said good pressure.

Insane. Roughly seven in ten households had no water, and fewer than one in ten had normal pressure, on an evening when the system upstream was running at full capacity, and the burst had been fixed. Both things can be true at once: the supply side genuinely improved, and most of Melville still had dry taps. That gap between what the system is doing and what comes out of your tap is significant, and it's why the polls matter. It's the only Melville-specific evidence anyone is collecting.

Here's How We Got Here:

The Bigger Picture

It was reported on 12 August that the Hursthill 2 rehabilitation is only 20% complete overall, though the work inside the reservoir itself is 70% done. As we reported in Cllr. Jacobs' story, the original April 2026 completion date has now moved to 29 March 2027. The contractor is off-site over unpaid invoices, even though the project is fully funded.

Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala called it "contractor cash-flow constraints caused by outstanding payments". The Eikenhof bulk pipeline is about 55% done. Roughly R1 billion is going into the Commando system, which also feeds Emmarentia, Brixton, Westbury and Coronationville.

The Bigger Picture

It was reported on 12 August that the Hursthill 2 rehabilitation is only 20% complete overall, though the work inside the reservoir itself is 70% done. As we reported in the Councillor Jacobs story, the original April 2026 completion date has now moved to 29 March 2027. The contractor is off-site over unpaid invoices, even though the project is fully funded. 

Joburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala called it "contractor cash-flow constraints caused by outstanding payments". The Eikenhof bulk pipeline is about 55% done. Roughly R1 billion is going into the Commando system, which also feeds Emmarentia, Brixton, Westbury and Coronationville.

You've probably seen the JoJo tanks on 1st Avenue. Here's how they actually work, and who's keeping them going.

Jonathan explained the setup: "The Melville Community JoJo Tank project, the three JoJos and the related piping and taps and everything, Danny from the MSI approached the community and asked for donations towards the three tanks and the infrastructure. He installed most of it; I helped here and there."

He then spoke with Joburg Water's truck managers. "I said, 'These are community tanks. Would you be allowed, and on request, would you be able to fill it up during water crises?' They agreed to it; they've maintained that agreement."

The tanks are staffed by volunteers, a group JT calls the "Water Warriors". They're there not only to help facilitate residents coming to get water but to enforce the 50-litre per household limit too. Some households get greedy, and that greed has led to private water donors limiting their supply, because they're running out as well.

"The reason why there are volunteers," Jonathan said, "it's not to guard the tanks or anything; it's just to ensure that the water limit of 50 litres per household is maintained. Otherwise, there have been instances in the past where people have come here with 240-litre refuse bins to fill it up."

Darryl, of the MRA, confirmed the arrangement. "Those water tanks, the MRA sponsored, I don't know, I think it was like two tanks, and the MSI sponsored. The whole thing was that it was supposed to be managed by volunteers."

But there's a problem. "We currently have a bunch of volunteers that are on a WhatsApp group, and they try to organise who will man the station when they have time. But obviously everyone also has full-time jobs, so right now it's a bit difficult since Danny stepped away."

That shows in the opening hours, which have changed. On Monday, Nicky Campbell posted that the tanks would be open from 12 to 1pm and again from 3 to 4pm, with the usual 50 litres per household. Those are the volunteers' hours, not the City's, so check the group the morning you plan to go rather than turning up at yesterday's times.

The etiquette is simple: take what your household needs for the day and no more. The reserves don't last when a few people load the boot. We had one local speak to the City, and was told they were unaware of the outage. Her point is that your customer relationship is with the City of Joburg, not Johannesburg Water. A logged call with them is what actually pushes the needle.

What used to stay largely inside community WhatsApp groups is now playing out in public on X. Melville's repeated water outages and infrastructure failures have moved beyond private chats and are being openly discussed and documented on the platform.

The contrast is clear. On WhatsApp, residents still get detailed hourly updates from our councillor candidate. On X, the same frustration is directed at @JHBWater, and they're not getting replies. Someone posted "Still no water Melville" six times in four hours before asking whether the system was getting worse and if there was a new issue. Another reported that there's been no water in Auckland Park and Melville since Saturday, noting that Joburg Water closed the ticket even though the taps remain dry, the same pattern residents complain about with City Power.

Richardt Strydom (@Rich_ardt) is keeping his own public tally. He quote-tweeted an earlier post from 27 August that read "Melville is without water YET AGAIN, 4 Days and counting now. Where's the fix," effectively doing in public what the MRA tracks in a spreadsheet.

These posts show the conversation has left the private groups and entered the public square. Joburg Water isn't completely silent; it still publishes "Commando System Updates" on its own site several times a day, but it isn't answering the people raising the problem. The updates happen; the replies don't.

City Power's official channels: citypower.mobi, call centre 011 490 7484, helpline 080 020 2925, and a WhatsApp updates channel.

Separate failure, storm-related, and still open. Numerous outages across Melville since 4 September, some whole streets, some single properties. Rain has kept City Power teams off overhead cables. Several residents report tickets being closed without anyone arriving.

If you want to know what "still open" actually looks like, follow one job. The corner of 4th Street and 8th Avenue has been dark because a pole is broken, and a broken pole cannot be fixed until someone hands over a pole. JT went to the City Power depot on Monday morning to find out where it was. A contractor had been assigned and had gone to the main stores to collect the pole and materials. By Monday afternoon he was still at the stores waiting. The pole was only released late on Tuesday, at which point the contractor said he'd start that night or first thing the next morning.

His own summary of it: "With the City and City Power being in a bad state, it's a continuous struggle to get matters attended to in reasonable time."

Two days, one pole, one street. The MSI has asked for extra patrols over the affected block in the meantime, because a dark street is a different kind of problem after 6pm.

Nearly two weeks of confusion in Melville had a straightforward answer the whole time.
Vumatel is migrating the area from Zhone to Huawei ONTs because the older Zhone units have reached end of life. During the changeover, the line goes dead and then comes back within about half an hour of the new box being fitted.

The official maintenance window ran from 17 August to 4 September under outage ID 173275. The practical takeaway: if your neighbours are back online and you aren't, the old box is almost certainly the reason. Log a ticket with your ISP and specifically request the ONT replacement.

Someone flagged down a Vuma vehicle in the street and had the swap completed in ten minutes. Another person's ISP also confirmed that customers can claim back the days they were offline, something almost no one knows.

Right, so here's where we're at with the Pet Swag competition.

The idea was to celebrate Melville’s animals by putting the spotlight on them for a change. I’m sad that it hasn’t quite taken off the way it did last year, so we’re extending it to the end of this month. 

A major shift since last year’s competition is #PetShareFriday’s takeoff in Melville Chat. Every Friday now, dozens of photos flood the group, people showing off their dogs, cats, birds, the lot. It's become a genuine weekly ritual; it’s exactly the type of energy I imagined when we first launched the Tail End. So, maybe the lesson is that this isn’t the right platform, but possibly a WhatsApp chat group is? This leaves us with much to think about going forward!

Anywho, final month, let’s go! The premise is simple: send us a snap of your furry family member in their best outfit, donate a blankie, readers vote, and you walk away with a prize pack from Raw Pet Food Deli. We only have one entry who's stunning enough to represent Melville’s whole pet community. Go Coco!

The competition now runs to the end of September. Entries are still open, so if you haven't sent yours in yet, now's the time. We're not calling winners until the entries close. Prize-giving will be at Raw Pet Food Deli once the month's done.

A quick tip we caught on rehoming: Don't give animals away on social media. Dog fighters scan for bait animals. Go through registered shelters instead.

It's not the friendliest message, but it's the right one. If you're rehoming, do it properly. The vets and SPCA have a line on this; we'll dig into it properly for Tail End soon.

If you’ve walked down Main Road recently, you might’ve spotted a new spot at number 7, under the old Stones. That’s Tshepo Qhobo’s new place. Most of us in the hood know him as Nigel, but the world knows him as Juicy The Dance Specialist, who’s opened a multidisciplinary space that’s part creative hub and part fresh produce stop. 

The fruit shop is open, the produce is unusually cheap, and it’s already drawing people in. The freshly squeezed Naartjie juice for R12 has gone viral on Main. D*mn, when last did Melville have a proper fruit shop? We really hope it works out! 

Beyond the veg, Juicy is a dancer with over 16,000 Instagram followers, a teacher, an altar boy at St Peter’s church, an actor, and now a small business owner planning to run classes in dance, acting, music, piano and intros to artisanal trades from the same premises. An all-inclusive subscription of about R650 a month gives kids access to multiple disciplines. 

“Music, dancing, theatre, art, chess, youth, and not drinking and going to clubs,” he told us, the culture he’s trying to build in Melville. The shop’s open, the veg is moving, and the energy is worth supporting. Tune in next week for the full story.

A reminder that Bambanani has extended its weekend hours: Fridays and Saturdays 9 am to 8 pm, Sundays 9 am to 7 pm.

Scooters Melville is running a buy-two-get-one-free special valid until 30 September, with free delivery to Melville, Auckland Park and Westdene.

The Koppies West work party scheduled for Sunday 6 September was postponed due to the weather. The new date is Sunday 4 October, 8 am–10 am.

Meet at the 3rd Avenue entrance to Koppies West (corner Arundel and 3rd Avenue, Westdene). There will be informal security on site.

Please come with gardening gloves, working clothes and strong boots/shoes. If you have them, bring secateurs, garden loppers or saws; extras will be available if you don’t. Bags for litter will also be provided.

This is a chance to help sustain Koppies West’s indigenous ecosystem and beauty. All are welcome. For more information, you can reach out to Brandon at 071 688 4924 or David at 082 789 1265.

If you want to experience the West in a much more chill way, consider joining us for the monthly Melville Koppies West Walk With Dogs on Saturday the 19th of September at 7.50 am. Same meet point. Top of Arundel Road, Westdene.

Also, make sure to get tickets for the Stargazing event launch this weekend early. Space is very limited!

Despite the ongoing challenges at Eeufees Oord, the community spirit of our neighbours in Westdene continues to shine through.

Kathleen Wolmarans, a concerned citizen who has watched the deterioration of the complex over the last ten years, shared her shock at a recent sewage spill:

“There was a blockage in the main sewerage line and sewage solids flooded the whole of Eupia. It was very shocking. Teams had to come out several times to try and unblock the main sewerage line. And the citizens yet again stepped up and power-washed, and bought Jeyes fluid and cleaned up the place because the health department wasn’t interested and government didn’t seem interested either. They were just gonna leave the solid waste there out in the open to dry and nobody seemed to care about any pathogen risk, cholera risk. Yeah, it was pretty shocking.”

Kathleen also spoke about the wider decline of the complex and the impact on elderly residents:

“As a concerned citizen who has watched the deterioration of Eeufees over the last ten years, it is shocking to me that the housing department has allowed it to decay in such a way that old people have such tiny, tiny little government pension and now they have to spend their own meagre funds on trying to fix things, maintain things that are supposed to be done by the housing department. There’s zero maintenance, and I find it awful that people are expected to live under these conditions.”

She encouraged Westdene residents to speak to Ward Councillor Genevieve Sherman, who is actively involved.

Community Support Complements City Duties

The councillor, Genevieve Sherman, said, “My view is that if members of the surrounding Westdene community have voluntarily identified a need at Eeufees Oord and want to assist the elderly residents, that can only be a positive community initiative. However, we must distinguish this from the City’s responsibility to provide the necessary services. Private fundraising should complement community support, not replace or excuse the City’s obligations.”

How You Can Help

Community members continue to step in with small maintenance and cleaning projects where official support has been lacking.

To help restore dignity to the elderly residents of Eeufees, more information and the fundraising campaign can be found on Back a Buddy.

 That's us for the week.

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Till next time, Melville:

Stay together, stay trying, stay terrific.

Kha vha sale zwavhudi. ✌️