Concerned councillor pleads for Covid-19 safety
She explained that it also impacts on the City’s staff and the services rendered by the various entities.
A concerned Ward 71 councillor Rene Benjamin recently took to Facebook, pleading with the community to take Covid-19 safety precautions more seriously.
“Over the last three weeks the ward has had over 20 Covid deaths, yet we still have residents not wearing masks and allowing kids to run around without theirs. The third wave of Covid is devastating, just look around you,” she said in her post.
She explained that it also impacts on the City’s staff and the services rendered by the various entities.
The post provides the following breakdown for City staff regarding coronavirus infections:
- 3 826 positive cases among staff members
- 3 161 recoveries
- 582 active cases
- 72 fatalities
This also impacts numerous City entities, including Joburg Water, City Power, Pikitup and JRA, and their ability to render their services.
The Joburg Water Depot has been reduced to an average of one team for sewage and one team for water issues per day. The Pikitup Depot has over 40 staff members currently in isolation which is delaying collection rounds and street cleaning. City Power also has several staff in isolation.
Her post further explained that City Management has taken the decision to close JRA’s depots for the time being and are only running standby teams in all regions. City Parks has also reduced the number of staff on duty.
“The revenue centres staff are working on a rotational basis and so too are the call centres. Some, if not most issues will take longer to attend to while I continue to escalate the matters brought to my attention. Even long outstanding request updates from the entity have become delayed and in some cases almost impossible to get,” Rene said.
She urged the community to adhere to all protocols so as to refrain from becoming a Covid-19 statistic.
She concluded her post with the following emergency numbers:
- Rene: 073 734 0061
- Toll free from a cell phone for all emergencies: 112
- Police: 10111
- Johannesburg EMS (Fire & Rescue) & JMPD: 011 375 5911
- Gauteng EMS (State Ambulance): 011 564 2211 or 011 564 2210
Private Ambulance Services (Alphabetical Order)
- EMER-G-MED: 0861 007 911
- ER24: 084 124
- Netcare 911: 082-911
- Quick Response Service: 0812 777 777
- Rescue 786: 083 9000 786
- Vitalmed: 087 095 1312 / 083 488 9989
