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COVID-19: Western Cape Provincial Overview 10

10 June 2020

COVID-19: Western Cape Provincial Overview 10

Municipalities in the Western Cape continue to provide ongoing support to their communities as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect citizens across the province.

The Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning in the Western Cape, Anton Bredell, says municipalities have been providing basic services throughout the entire lockdown period.

“Tackling Covid-19 has seen the coming together of all sectors including the state, the private sector and NGOs in ongoing efforts to assist our people. Municipalities across the province have been feeding their vulnerable communities throughout the entire lockdown period and this continues. Councils have been passing their budgets for the new financial year that started on 1 June. We have seen many changes to proposed budgets to better provide for ongoing Covid-19 challenges. This is necessary to ensure we can best ensure our communities are looked after. I want to commend our councils for the hard work they have been putting in.”

Updates from some municipalities across the province includes:

  • The City of Cape Town’s Health Department has secured the services of 490 Expanded Public Works employees to help drive COVID-19 education and awareness initiatives in the city. The City’s Urban Management Directorate has reprioritised and set aside R12 million from its 2019/2020 budget for immediate social humanitarian relief in vulnerable wards in the city.
  • Overstrand Municipality is offering hotels, guest houses, Bed & Breakfasts and self-catering properties some relief for the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on tourism during the national lockdown. The Residential rates tariff will be applied instead of the Business rates tariff.
  • In the Swartland municipal area, approximately 77 feeding schemes continues to provide meals to the vulnerable.
  • Theewaterskloof Municipality – Indigent subsidies that expired during lockdown will be extended until the end of the current financial year. Subsidy beneficiaries do not have to visit the office to re-apply at this moment. Residents who are unemployed and struggling to pay for municipal rates and services and who qualify in terms of the Indigent Policy are encouraged to apply for the Indigent Subsidy.
  • In Stellenbosch, ongoing community screening and testing for Covid-19 is progressing well. Soup kitchens and food distribution to vulnerable communities through the Stellenbosch Unite partnership continues. The temporary homeless shelter remains in operation with approximately 60 people in the facility.
  • The Executive Mayor and Councillors of Drakenstein Municipality, as well as the City Manager and all municipal officials will not receive salary increases in the 2020/2021 financial year. In addition, the Municipality has aimed to keep the new financial year municipal tariff increases as low as possible. This is in response to the financial challenges faced by the Drakenstein community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Prince Albert Municipality has encouraged households earning below R3700 per month to apply for an indigent subsidy at the municipality.
  • In support of a project coordinated by the Department of Local Government, West Coast District Municipality is funding and assisting local municipalities with the transportation of tons of donated citrus fruit from a farm outside Stellenbosch. The fruit will assist municipalities in the West Coast region with their various ongoing humanitarian and social relief initiatives.

Bredell has urged all citizens with questions or concerns or who wish to make a contribution in the ongoing struggle to visit the provincial website: www.westerncape.gov.za/coronavirus or to get in touch with their local municipalities for assistance.

“In addition, if you have flu-like symptoms, and may have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19, please contact the provincial hotline on 021 928 4102 for advice on what to do next.”

 ENDS.

Media enquiries:

James-Brent Styan

Spokesperson for the Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell

Mobile: 084 583 1670 / E-mail: James-Brent.Styan@westerncape.gov.za