5 August 2020 Media Release: More EPWP essential workers for the Garden Route to stop the spread of COVID-19
Media Release: More EPWP essential workers for the Garden Route to stop the spread of COVID-19
For immediate release
5 August 2020
With the Garden Route district being identified as one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the Western Cape, the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), last month trained 119 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) essential workers, to assist at hotspots in the district and to create awareness about COVID-19.
With the substantial surge of infections over the past weeks, more workers have been recruited of which now reached a total of 226 workers on the programme, with eighty (80) being recruited to service the George municipal, area as the hotspot of the Garden Route. Twenty-eight (28) workers have been deployed to Knysna, 36 to Hessequa, 30 to Bitou, 20 to the Greater Oudtshoorn municipal area, 12 to Kannaland and 20 to Mossel Bay.
According to Mr Richard Dyantyi, Manager for the EPWP at the GRDM, the increase number of essential workers in these areas, was influenced by the rise in the COVID-19 infections. Hence the deployment by the National Department of Public Works in collaboration with National Department of Health.
Their tasks include: health promotion on COVID-19 prevention by creating awareness, the distribution of soap and hand sanitizers, cleaning and disinfection of public areas that are frequently visited by members of the public such as SASSA pay points, taxi ranks, communal water collection points and areas identified by GRDM Municipal Health Services. All these tasks are performed with the personal protective equipment provided by the Independent Development Trust (IDT). He also said: “All workers are trained and supervised by Environmental Health Practitioners from GRDM. The recruited EPWP participants are subjected to a screening process, which is coordinated by the GRDM Municipal Health Services . The recruitment is done in such a way that the appointed workers service their respective local Municipal wards,” he added.
The Executive Mayor of GRDM, Alderman Memory Booysen, highlighted: “The increased number of essential workers to these hotspots is an indication that we adapt our efforts to ensure that we address the pandemic as it unfolds. We cannot entirely predict the number of persons to be infected, as community transmissions are highly unpredictable, but we can intensify our initiatives to address the demands, if needed. This is one such example thereof,” Mayor Booysen concluded.
The Head of Disaster Management at GRDM, Mr Gerhard Otto, said that this additional manpower will assist on ground level to monitor the Covid-19 safety measures i.e. social distancing, regular washing of hands with soap and water as well as the wearing of face masks. Over the next two to three weeks a whole of government approach with all “hands on deck” would be required to slow down the spread of this deadly virus and ensure the flattening of Covid-19 curve. This would assist in ensuring that our health system meets the ever-increasing demand for critical health care.
This programme is an initiative of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) as a member of the National Joints (NatJoints) Committee, who identified this initiative as the best response mechanism to assist the Department of Health to deliver required public health services at elementary level for purposes of COVID-19 spread prevention and control. The programme is a collective effort between the DPWI, Independent Development Trust, NPOs (such as Edu-Plett and God Care International), Department of Employment and Labour, GRDM and Local Municipalities in the Garden Route district.
ENDS