#COVID-19: Ekurhuleni metro shuts down public spaces, bans official travel, could implement work-from-home for high-risk staff

The JOC is composed of senior officials from all departments and will convene every Tuesday and Thursday.

The officials will provide the office of the mayor with daily situational reports and meet with various stakeholders, such as ACSA, Eskom, ERWAT, faith-based organisations, traditional leaders, taxi associations, IziNduna at hostels and various chambers and business forums, among others.

Measures put in place so far:

Council Workplace

* Hand sanitising stations at all entrances of government buildings for everyone entering and exiting.

* Scheduled sanitation of commonly used objects like telephones, door handles, taps and desks.

* Investigating the introduction of staggered reporting times across depots to minimise the number of people gathered at these venues.

* In the process of setting up a dedicated hotline for employees who have questions about the coronavirus.

* Considering the introduction of a work-from-home protocol for high-risk staff.

* The Human Resource Department will further publish leave management guidelines for the current National State of Disaster.

* A moratorium on all official staff travel, domestic and international, has been enforced.

Closed until further notice:

* Community halls.

* Civic centres.

* Stadia and sports fields.

* Lakes.

* Public swimming pools.

* Innovation and business labs.

* Nature reserves. All prior bookings and events that were scheduled at these venues have been cancelled until further notice and upcoming metro events have been postponed. The metro is investigating an innovative solution to conduct public participation through digital platforms to avoid public gatherings.

Open, with restrictions

* Cemeteries will remain open throughout the State of Disaster. Families are advised to keep funeral attendance to under 100 people and exercise punctuality during their service, to avoid contact with other funeral parties.

* Public libraries will not be allowed to host more than 100 people at a time. All visitors will be required to be seated a minimum of 1.5m apart. The metro is considering shortening the operating hours of libraries.

* Restaurants and taverns: Advised not to exceed the limit of 50 patrons within their facility. The metro also calls upon these establishments to introduce strict hygiene protocols for their staff and customers.

* Shopping centres and malls: To monitor the number of customers entering their facilities and introduce measures to mitigate panic buying.

Education

* Mass public awareness campaign.

* Intensive education workshops will be provided to high-risk individuals by health and safety officials.

* Daily situation updates will be sent to residents via SMS and digital media platforms.

* Internal communications campaign will be rolled out to educate employees and provide regular updates of decisions taken by the metro which may affect them.

Safety and security

* Increased visible policing.

* Personnel will be assigned to monitor and fact check for fake news about the metro. Misinformation alerts will be communicated to the public through the metro’s

digital media platforms.

* A zero-tolerance approach against public disobedience and violent acts of xenophobia.

Health facilities

* Sanitisation stations at the entrance of all clinics.

* All clinics will allocate isolation rooms for patients that display symptoms, where they will be tested and quarantined before being sent to a hospital.

* Further training of clinical staff.

OR Tambo International

* Deployment of health and safety officials to OR Tambo International Airport and Rand Airport to assess the effectiveness of screening of entrants into the metro and monitor the enforcement of hygiene protocols throughout the facilities.

* Additional health and safety officers will be stationed at both airports to support COVID-19 containment measures.

Account payments

Residents are urged to use the Siyakhokha online system to:

* Link municipal accounts.

* Add banking details.

* View statements.

* Make payments.

* View payment history/status.

* View consumption of water and electricity.

* Log complaints/compliments.

“As we continue to learn more about Covid-19, we are asking the citizens of the metro to come together and play their part in curbing this pandemic,” executive mayor Mzwandile Masina said.

“Now is not the time to panic, but we must rather empower ourselves with knowledge and follow best practices for reducing the spread of the virus.

“The metro will continue to do everything within our power to keep you safe.”

* Notice: Coronavirus reporting at Caxton Local Media aims to combat fake news. 

Dear reader,  as your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19. Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).