The City of Ekurhuleni has closed many of its public facilities until further notice, following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of a national state of disaster on March 15.
This includes all civic centres where rates halls are situated.
Executive mayor Mzwandile Masina has outlined a list of containment and mitigation measures to decrease the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following extensive consultation with the city’s senior managers and in line with best practice measures outlined by the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the city has embarked on the following measures:
• Covid-19 joint operations centre
The city has activated a Joint Operations Centre (JOC) to coordinate the metro’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The JOC comprises senior officials from all the city’s departments and will convene every Tuesday and Thursday.
The JOC will provide the office of the executive mayor with daily reports on developments relating to the outbreak.
The JOC will meet with various city stakeholders, (Acsa, Eskom, Erwat, faith-based organisations, traditional leaders, taxi associations, IziNduna at hostels, various chambers and business forums) regularly to receive input and provide updates on developments surrounding the outbreak.
Read: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Social distancing, self-isolation and quarantine explained
• Social distancing
The city recognises that globally, social distancing has emerged as one of the most effective methods of slowing down the Covid-19 pandemic.
With this in mind the city has decided to enforce the closure of the following government-owned facilities:
* Community halls
* Civic centres
* Stadia and sports fields
* Lakes
* Public swimming pools
* Innovation and business labs
* Nature reserves
These facilities will be closed until further notice.
The city will communicate any changes to the status of the facilities when the need arises.
All prior bookings and events that were scheduled to take place at these venues have been cancelled until further notice.
All upcoming city events have been postponed until further notice.
The city is currently investigating an innovative solution to conduct public participation through digital platforms to avoid public gatherings.
Public 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 to libraries will be required to be seated a minimum of 1.5m apart.
The city is considering shortening the operating hours of libraries.
Restaurants and taverns are advised not to exceed the limit of 100 patrons within their facility.
The city also calls upon these establishments to introduce strict hygiene protocols for their staff and customers.
The city urges all shopping centres and malls to monitor the number of customers entering their facilities.
Retailers are encouraged to to introduce measures to mitigate panic buying by customers.
• Account payments
The city encourages account holders to utilise the Siyakhokha online system
Siyakhokha offers residents and businesses the convenience of online services, while at the same time promoting social distancing.
Watch: 5 ways the Coronavirus is changing daily lives
The Siyakhokha portal allows account holders to conduct the following services:
* Link your municipal accounts
* Add your banking details
* View your municipal statements
* Make payment for your municipal account (once-off payment/recurring debit order/master-pass)
* View payment history/status
* View consumption (water/electricity)
* Log complaints/compliments
• Communications and public education
* The city will be rolling out a mass public awareness campaign regarding the Covid-19 outbreak
* Intensive education workshops will be provided to high-risk individuals in the city by health and safety officials
* Daily situation updates will be sent to city residents via SMS and digital media platforms
* Internal communications campaign will be rolled out to educate city employees of Covid-19 and provide regular updates of decisions taken by the city which may affect them
• Safety and security
* Increased visible policing will be implemented throughout the city
* City personnel will be assigned to monitor and fact check fake news containing information regarding the city.
Misinformation alerts will be communicated to the public through our digital media platforms
* A zero-tolerance approach will be taken against public disobedience and violent acts of xenophobia
• Health facilities
In order to minimise the potential strain the Covid-19 pandemic might exert on public hospitals, the city will capacitate local clinics with the following interventions:
* Sanitisation stations are currently set up at the entrance of all of the city’s clinics
* All clinics will allocate isolation rooms for patients that display symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, where they will be tested and quarantined before being sent to a hospital
* Further training of clinical staff will continue in order to ensure they are suitably prepared to deal with potential Covid-19 cases
• Ports of entry
The City of Ekurhuleni is home to the continent’s busiest airport, OR Tambo International.
This means the city must take an active interest in the screening, tracing and reporting of contact individuals at this port to safeguard the wellness of residents.
* The city has deployed health and safety officials to OR Tambo International Airport and Rand Airport to assess the effectiveness of screening of entrants into the city and monitor the enforcement of hygiene protocols throughout the facilities
* Additional city health and safety officers will be stationed at both airports to support Covid-19 containment measures
• Workplace management
* The city will allocate hand sanitising stations at all entrances to government buildings and will enforce hygiene protocols on all individuals entering and exiting the buildings
* The city will be introducing scheduled sanitation of commonly used objects across the city. This includes telephones, door handles, taps and desks among other things
* The city is currently investigating the introduction of staggered reporting times across the city’s depots in order to minimise the number of people gathered at these venues
* The city is in the process of setting up a dedicated hotline for employees who have any questions regarding Covid-19
* The city is considering the introduction of a work from home protocol for high-risk staff members and will make an announcement to this effect in the near future
* The human resources department will further publish leave management guidelines for the current national state of disaster
* A moratorium on all official staff travel, domestic and international, have been enforced until further notice
The city is aware that the following measures will inconvenience a large number of residents.
The drastic measures being undertaken are in the interest of protecting citizens and drastically slowing down the spread of the virus.
“As we continue to learn more about Covid-19, we ask citizens of the City of Ekurhuleni to come together and play their part in curbing this pandemic,” said Masina.
“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 city will continue to do everything within its power to keep you safe.”
• The public is advised to call the coronavirus hotline on 0800 029 999 with any suspected cases of corona, or to report or obtain information relevant to the pandemic.
* 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).
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