The Citizen Relationship and Urban Management stakeholder at Region F conducted an open day exhibition at Darras Centre, in Kensington, on March 31.
The purpose of this open day was to inform the community about the services provided by the City of Johannesburg. Another aim was to promote interaction between the government officials from municipal entities and the community.
Among the departments that took part in the open day were social services, environmental health, Joburg Water and Home Affairs.
Speaking on behalf of Home Affairs, Mr Ace Maunatlala said the department was there to disseminate information on smart cards, unabridged birth certificates and late birth certificates.
Mr Maunatlala urged mothers to register their babies within 30 days of birth.
“The mothers must register their babies when they are still in hospital because all our government hospital have the facilities to register babies and produce birth certificates,” said Mr Maunatlala.
He said the department tries to do campaigns by going to schools and other public engagement events like the open days to give information and educational information.
The open day also included a comprehensive public education campaign to inform the residents about the city’s by-laws and responsible citizenry by encouraging them to report all service delivery breakdowns to the City of Johannesburg.
Mr Pieter Van Vuuren, the citizen relationship manager, said the idea behind the open day event was to bring services to the people and for the community to ask questions and to get to know the services offered by various departments.
“Our department is very small; we have six offices that cover 19 wards. As much as we would like to host these events on a monthly basis, it is not always possible,” said Mr Van Vuuren.
Mr Shaun O’Shea, the assistant director for Region F Citizen Relationship, said they felt the need to take services to the community as there is not enough engagements of this type.
“These open days are important and we would like to do them in all the wards,” said Mr O’Shea.
Ms Elna Crous, the operations manager for environmental health in wards 66 and 118, said her department was there because they wanted to educate people about the dangers of water pollution, illegal dumping and food poisoning.
“People are unaware of the dangers of illegal dumping. When you dump it creates all sorts of problems like rats. Rats bite and that can lead to all sorts of health problems,” said Ms Crous.
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