A year of progress, partnership, and continued investment in our shared home
Dear Members of the Fourways Gardens community,
It is my privilege to present this year’s Chairman’s Report on behalf of the FWG Board of Directors. As we reflect on the past year, I am reminded again that Fourways Gardens is far more than a residential estate. It is a community shaped by shared pride, active participation, and a collective commitment to protecting the lifestyle, security, and long-term value of the place we call home.
In 2023, the Board established five long-term priorities — our “Big 5” — to guide decision-making, budgeting, and operational focus. These priorities have continued to give structure to our work, ensuring that every investment and every project is considered through the lens of what will best serve residents today while strengthening the Estate for the future.
Security remains our foremost priority and continues to represent the largest area of levy expenditure, accounting for roughly half of our monthly levy. This is a deliberate and necessary investment in the safety of our residents, the protection of our homes, and the preservation of confidence in Fourways Gardens.
Our camera network now exceeds 300 cameras across the Estate, and through our community alliance with The Fourways Improvement District, coverage extends into the greater Fourways area. This broader security ecosystem includes drone surveillance and licence-plate recognition on key roads feeding into our community. Over the past year, our licence-plate cameras assisted in the interception of more than 2,000 vehicles wanted for various reasons, with each matter handed to the relevant law-enforcement agency.
Our docked drone, equipped with thermal imaging, has also demonstrated its value in emergency response. On two occasions it assisted emergency personnel by identifying house-fire hotspots and detecting heat signatures where lives may have been at risk. In addition, we completed our security fibre-backup project to strengthen continuity in both off-site and on-site monitoring.
In conjunction with the Johannesburg Roads Agency, speed humps were installed on Bushwillow Road. These have made a marked difference in reducing speeding and noise for our perimeter homes, while also contributing to fewer incidents of Estate property damage.
Alongside our security infrastructure, we have continued to strengthen the rules and systems that support orderly community life. Our architectural guidelines and compliance framework have been updated and enforced, helping to protect the character and standards of the Estate.
The comprehensive simplification of the Conduct Rules required only minor amendments this year, covering access, short-term rentals, and pets. We also completed a significant clean-up of our resident database through a re-enrolment programme, giving us greater confidence that those registered on our new biometric and facial recognition systems are genuinely authorised to enter the Estate.
Our Environmental and Maintenance work saw steady progress. The largest phase of the river rehabilitation was completed, and our landscaping moved to an impactful, performance-managed service-level agreement. A new back-up water-storage tank in Phase 1 Park and multiple new tanks supplying the clubhouse and HOA office delivered meaningful cost savings, with further savings achieved through a change to our clubhouse power supply.
Pathways were renewed alongside the river project, road repairs were undertaken in-house wherever possible, and our green-belt and tree-planting programme continued in partnership with City Parks. We remain mindful that our roads, water, and sewerage ultimately fall under the City of Johannesburg, whose surrounding infrastructure is under considerable strain. Even so, we continue to manage those relationships actively and to hold standards wherever we are able.
Looking to the year ahead, our strategic goals build directly on this progress. We will maintain and reinforce our secure perimeter, including a full replacement of the perimeter fence, and modernise our control room, which has served us for several years without significant upgrade. We will continue to restore and activate our natural environment, carrying the river rehabilitation into its next phase with all necessary approvals in hand. I wish to assure Members that every environmental project is undertaken lawfully and with the required permissions in place. We will renew community infrastructure, from the Phase 1 Park and HOA office to the clubhouse and tennis courts with pickleball, and continue placing our major services onto measurable service-level agreements, all while maintaining the financial resilience that allows us to invest responsibly. This is a deliberate year of investment, carrying our largest capital programme in recent memory, but it is a planned and funded one.
None of this is achieved without the people behind it. Our Estate staff, ably led by our Estate Manager, Charlene Marlin, have delivered through no shortage of challenges, and I thank them for their commitment. I extend my sincere thanks, too, to the Directors who have stood down after several years of dedicated service — Richard Hurly, Maggs Moonsamy, and Cheryl Whitaker. We were fortunate to have a Board that worked with genuine synergy, sharing objectives and debating matters constructively for the greater good of the Estate. Andrew Niven and I remain on the Board to provide continuity in the Finance and Security portfolios, and we warmly welcome our incoming Directors.
We remain focused on protecting the integrity, safety, and lifestyle of Fourways Gardens, and on continuing to strengthen what we have built together.
Thank you,
Ryan Horsman
Chairman, FWG Board of Directors
69 Camdeboo Rd Fourways Sandton 2055
info@fwg.co.za
011 465 7731
