The area served by the RRRA is bounded by:
Cooper, Blesbok and Maria Streets on the Northern border
Judges Avenue and Kings Avenue on the Southern border
Malibongwe Road on the Eastern border
Republic Road and May Street on the Western border
- To encourage all residents to show concern and interest in the aesthetic appearance of the area and to get involved in keeping the Robins clean and beautiful.
- To facilitate interest in the affairs and maintenance of our area and to liaise with the Municipality and its officials as well as any other organizations’ in promoting and commenting on the bigger issues for the benefit of all residents.
- To gather and disseminate relevant and appropriate information and to take the necessary action deemed advisable for the benefits of the residents in our area.
To Facilitate the maintenance of the neighborhood in terms of ecological and aesthetic considerations.
- To mobilise all residents to show concern for and interest in the physical security of the area, their own properties and person; their neighbours and, specifically, any vulnerable residents.
- To create, develop and maintain a mechanism to assist with crime prevention and reporting on crime.
- To encourage neighbours to accept responsibility for reporting suspicious matters in their immediate environment to either security companies or law enforcement agencies.
To ensure appropriate co-operative measures are established and maintained with the relevant law enforcement institutions, as well as all private security companies which operate in our area.
- The cultivation of a culture of engagement, consideration, respect, and cooperation amongst and towards all residents.
A group of interested residents formed an action group, known as the “Robins Action Group” during the early 1990s. The focus of the Robins Action Group, of whom the Chair was Christine De Klerk, was on security, and one of the objectives of that organisation was to close off the roads in a large area across the Robin Hills and related suburbs. A formal application was brought to the City of Johannesburg and the Johannesburg Road Agency. Donations were requested for the Robins Action Group, and each household was requested to pay R500. The money was used top conduct the traffic impact studies and to commence the purchasing of the fences and booms to initiate the road closures. The application was, however, rejected, and the property which had been purchased was confiscated by the City of Johannesburg.
The initial committee of the Robins Action Group changed its membership and a new committee was chaired by Willie van der Bergh. The original association changed its name to the Robins’ Residents and Ratepayers Association and the first Constitution of the RRRA was passed at an annual general meeting of the RRRA, held on the 15th August 2004. One of the success stories of that RRRA, was arranging with the City of Johannesburg, Parks Department, to erect palisade fencing around the Robins Park off Mulbarton. Councillor Don Forbes, who had served the City of Johannesburg for many years, was instrumental in the fence being erected. During the years while Willie van der Bergh was the Chair, the RRRA often arranged clean-sessions and fence repairs of Robins Park.
The subsequent chair of the RRRA became Julian Cloete. The committee of the RRRA at the time, arranged for notice-boards to be erected, in association with ADT and a few social get-togethers were arranged in Robins Park. By 2008, the committee of the RRRA had dwindled in size and stopped meeting. Another success story was negotiating with Builders Express so that the entrance to their new branch was not through the suburbs, including Martha Road, but was to only be permitted from Malibongwe, to lessen the truck traffic in the suburbs of the RRRA.
During the middle of 2015, a group of residents in the area met and subsequently the Robins’ Residents and Ratepayers Association was revived. Julian Cloete acted as the Chairperson and Irvin Sammons as the Vice Chairperson. A number of activities were taken on by the new committee of the RRRA. The first order of business was to set up WhatsApp groups across the suburbs, in order to provide a mechanism for regular communications between residents in the various suburbs comprising the RRRA. The committee’s work also included effecting repairs of the wooden fence surrounding Cherry Park. Subsequent to these work-parties, a few picnics were arranged by the RRRA for residents to meet and greet on a Saturday afternoon in Cherry Park. As the committee of the RRA grew larger and stronger, other activities included arranging various Fun Day Events held on Saturday mornings, which started during 2017, and were held intermittently again on various occasions during 2018 and again in 2019. Numerous stalls provided residents and their families with food, beverages and numerous items for sale.
As a step towards increasing the security in the suburbs forming part of the RRRA, the committee of the RRRA conducted an analysis into all of the security companies operating within the area. The committee eventually conclude that it would recommend to residents, that they should support either Ghost Squad or Trojan Security.
From late 2018, residents in Oorbietjie Street and the committee of the RRRA engaged the services of Urban Threat Management cc, to regularise the cleaning of Cherry Park, and the reduction of the usage of Cherry Park by vagrants. This new undertaking, known as “Project Robins”, required a steady monthly income and the committee of the RRRA requested residents to begin paying monthly donations in order to regularise the relationship with Urban Threat Management cc, to look after more of the parks in the area (there are eight parks in the suburbs, including Cherry Park and Robins Park). “Sundowner” events were arranged by the committee of the RRRA as social get-togethers in Robins Park commenced during late 2018 and are arranged approximately once a month.