This was at the unveiling of a fleet of new service vehicles, which includes 48 ambulances, nine paramedic response cars and nine fire-fighting vehicles, to boost emergency services in Ekurhuleni.
The security services in Ekurhuleni also received an injection of 120 Metro Police cars, which have been allocated to the SWAT, dog, security, public order policing, community liaison, by-law enforcement units and all EMPD precincts in the metro.
Gauteng MEC for Health and Social Development Hope Papo commended the metro for taking the initiative to purchase the ambulances, thus complimenting the service provided by the provincial government.
“We thank you for taking it upon yourselves to improve health services in your City. As the Gauteng Department of Health, we will also be allocating a couple of obstetric ambulances to all municipalities in the province, which will cater only for women giving birth,” said Papo, as he spoke at the event held at the Sam Ntuli Stadium in Thokoza.
Ekurhuleni has taken this step to alleviate delays in service delivery due to constraints presented by ageing vehicles. It has, thus, procured over 600 vehicles within its 2012/2013 financial year, to the tune of R214-million.
This is part of a promise that mayor Gungubele made to residents earlier this year, during his State of the City Address, when he promised to turn things around where service delivery is concerned.
Gungubele indicated that beyond getting a new fleet, the municipality has also zoomed into its emergency call taking centre, which has been the subject of public outcries recently.
“The Call Centre remains the most critical priority for the metro, hence we have invested approximately R20-m to upgrade the facility, a project which will be completed by end of this month,” he said.
“Furthermore, within the next few weeks we will be advertising an additional 200 posts for call takers.”
The intervention means that the centre will be able to accommodate 50 additional call centre agents on a four-shift system, instead of the current 12 agents.
Other departments which also displayed their new vehicles on the day, included waste management services, water services and transport.
