Ward Based War Rooms to ensure oversight as the fight against Covid-19 intensifies

The City of Ekurhuleni was identified as one of the municipalities that reflects a high number of coronavirus infections in the Gauteng province; as such, a tactical response was required to address immediate challenges faced by communities and to ensure oversight for service delivery through a stakeholder based approach.

The constant national increase in Covid-19 infections has necessitated municipalities to look beyond the conventional methods of service delivery to secure the livelihood of citizens during this pandemic.

The ward-based service delivery approach will assist in managing infections by closing in on highly infected regions and wards.

This week saw the launch of Ward Based War Rooms (WBWR) in the City of Ekurhuleni – local structures that will facilitate the new service delivery approach.

The composition of the war rooms are in line with the six pillars of ward-based service delivery, which include comprehensive health response, economic response, law enforcement and compliance, food security, social mobilisation and lastly, state capacity and adaptability.

Read: Ekurhuleni to table its 2020/21 budget

Ward and PR councillors will lead and chair the WBWR structures, which will report to the District Command Council.

These structures are in the process of being established in all Gauteng municipalities, in line with the provincial strategy.

The WBWR will operate in line with level three risk-adjusted regulations with the objective to localise the Covid-19 response.

The targeted regions in Ekurhuleni are the north and south regions.

Affected wards are in the Thembisa and Kathorus areas.

The National Department of Health has indicated that the country has not reached its peak infection level, but has explained that the unprecedented increase in daily infections is due to a relaxation of lockdown regulations.

It is critical for municipalities to work closely with highly affected communities and provincial government to slow down the rate of infection, especially in hotspot areas.

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