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Author: Herman Pieters

COVID-19 Multi-Agency Command Centre Established for the Garden Route

Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), yesterday, 19 March 2020, established a COVID-19 Multi Agency Command Centre (MACC) at its head office in George. This follows Western Cape Government’s call on all districts to do the same to ensure that the various clusters share what is happening closer to grassroots level. Clusters are categorised into the following stakeholder groups: Transport; Social Services and Education; Health; Safety and Security; and Communications.

“We are one of the first Districts to act proactively in ensuring that our clusters are up-and-running,” said Cllr Memory Booysen, Executive Mayor of Garden Route District Municipality.

“I am thankful for our Municipal Manager, Mr Monde Stratu’s leadership and quick response to the pandemic,” said Booysen. “Stratu meets with his Senior Management on a daily basis to discuss the organisation’s readiness and receives feedback from Disaster Management about the status of agencies and communities. Our GRDM Manager: Municipal Disaster Management, Mr Gerhard Otto’s also acted swiftly in getting all stakeholders together. He keeps key stakeholders in the Garden Route up to date on developments from a provincial and national level since the onset of COVID-19 in South Africa. In terms of communication, our organisation’s Communication Unit continuously communicates with communicators at a national, provincial and b-municipal level. A group for staff members have been created where awareness is filtered to all levels of employees, who are then tasked to communicate messages to contacts in their phone books. We also use Facebook and Twitter to share information,” said Booysen.

Otto yesterday confirmed that there are 47 cases of COVID-19 in the Western Cape at the moment, and 150 in South Africa on 19 March 2020.

Dr Terence Marshall (Department of Health) who leads the Health Cluster, during the first MACC said that they are currently starting on phase two of responses for COVID-19. “Additional sites are being identified for testing and we are possibly also getting a mobile testing station.” He explained that they are already also “planning for phase three, which relates to large scale community transitions of the virus, and facilities for isolation”. One of the next important interventions that need immediate attention, is the “decongestion of public services”. Western Cape Government will shortly communicate the plan of action going forward to address this.

Dr Marshall also said: “A decision was taken that no visitors should be allowed at vulnerable sites (e.g. Old age  homes, correctional serviced and hospitals).”

APPEAL TO BUSINESSES

The COVID-19 MACC acknowledges the major challenges businesses are experiencing right now. Many are taking innovative steps to allow for social distancing, like ensuring their employees not to use public transport and digitising more of their operations, but there is always more that can be done.

An appeal is, however made, to all employers to do what they can, to let employees work from home. Every business should develop a social distancing approach that means staff should not be forced to be in close proximity to each other.

A best practice guide together with other FAQs on COVID-19 is being developed to assist businesses to stop the spread and will be published at www.westerncape.gov.za/coronavirus

COVID-19 MACC STAKEHOLDERS

There were about 35 stakeholders present at the first meeting, which was raised as a concern due to social distancing. Consequently, it was requested that only one or two people per cluster form part of the COVID-19 MACC which will take place on Monday – Friday mornings.

The list of stakeholders who were present at the first JOC, include: The National Department of Correctional Services, South African Police Services, Western Cape Department of Health, Western Cape Department of Health for Garden Route and Central Karoo, GRDM Economic Development and Tourism, George Pop, George Municipality, Go George, Emergency Medical and Ambulance Services, Provincial Traffic, South African Health Monitoring Survey, Life Bayview Hospital, Western Cape Department of Trade and Tourism, Airports Company of South Africa and George Fire and Rescue Services.

STAY SAFE, HYGIENE IS A PRIORITY

It is advisable for you to stay at home and self-isolate if you display the symptoms of COVID-19 (cough, fever, sore throat) combined with the international travel history or came into contact with a confirmed case. Contact the Hotline on 0800 029 999. They will advise you on the next steps. For Western Cape citizens struggling to get through to the Hotline an alternative number has been set up to assist local citizens with health related information on COVID-19– 021 928 4102.

There are certain basic things the public can do to prevent the spread of the virus:

  • Wash hands regularly, every 30 minutes for at least 20 seconds
  • Cover you cough and sneeze, in the crook of your arm or tissue and throw it away
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
  • Reconsider or avoid non-essential international travel to affected areas
  • Keep a distance of at least one metre from people who are sick
  • Stay at home if you feel unwell

IMPORTANT NUMBERS FOR EVERYONE TO SAVE

If a person develops flu-like symptoms, do not panic. Community members should isolate themselves at home. This means one must limit contact with others.

Please call the National Coronavirus Hotline: 0800 029 999, the Provincial hotline: 021 928 4102 or WhatsApp “Hi” to 060 012 3456. A person can also call your health practitioner for further advice on what to do next. If unwell, stay home, except to get medical care as directed by the hotline or advice of health practitioner – do not go to work, school or public areas.

END

Garden Route Skills Summit cancelled due to growing concerns over COVID-19 VIRUS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
15 March 2020
Garden Route Skills Summit cancelled due to growing concerns over COVID-19 VIRUS

George – 15 March 2020. After carefull consultation between the Executive Mayor of Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), Cllr Memory Booysen and GRDM Municipal Manager, Mr Monde Stratu, a decision has been made to cancel the Garden Route Skills Summit which was planned for 19-20 March 2020 in Knysna.

“Following an increase of the number of COVID-19 cases in South Africa and in particular, the Western Cape, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global pandemic. We are disappointed that we are unable to hold such a Summit that was geared towards economic growth and skills development, but we know it is the right decision based on the information we have today,” said Monde Stratu, GRDM Municipal Manager.

GRDM will continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve. As a result, the District municipality is now directing that all its employees also stop traveling with immediate effect. This, however, does not include our Roads Services employees who travel while servicing Provincial Roads.

Garden Route DM lends a helping hand to Industry

Above: Mr Angus Andries assists representatives from Johnsons Bricks, Vantell Bricks, Kurland Bricks, South Cape Galvanizing and Rheebok Bricks.

Every year the District Air Quality unit of Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) assists Industrial companies in the Garden route region with the annual submission of their National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory System (NAEIS). GRDM held four workshops with Industries since January 2020.

“Industry sectors are clustered together in order for the District to assist them with the reporting of their 2019 emissions on the system,” said Dr Johann Schoeman, Manager: Air Quality Management.

He further added, “This is a legislative, and therefore, compulsory reporting in terms of the NAEIS Regulations. Each Listed Industry in the South Africa must report its emissions before 31 March on an annual basis.”

GRDM is the only district in the Western Cape that assists its industries in the form of workshops. This trend has continued over the past four (4) years at the GRDM sub-office in Mossel Bay. At the sessions, online questionnaires are completed and a 100% submission rate is always achieved.

WHAT IS THE NAEIS SYSTEM USED FOR?

The NAEIS system is an online reporting platform of emissions such as Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Sulphur dioxide, Volatile Organic Compounds, Hydrogen sulphide, Oxides of Nitrogen, Particulate Matter, to name a few. It is important for industrial companies and the District to know what emission trends are in order to plan properly.

GRDM’s Air Quality Management Unit will not only continue to manage air quality in the district, but also assist industry with air quality-related matters. Clean air can ultimately only be achieved through a collaborative approach, which is why the District’s Air Quality vision, “To have air quality worthy of the name: Garden Route” is achieved and upheld.

 

 

Garden Route DM hosts United Nations experts on Risk Management, Sustainability and Urban Resilience

The group of representatives from 20 institutions from Sub-Saharan Africa, some from as far as Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania and Kenya, are currently attending training at Garden Route District Municipality’s Head Office in George.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Technical Centre for Disaster Risk Management, Sustainability and Urban Resilience (DiMSUR) are piloting the participatory planning tool for building urban resilience, known as CityRAP, in three South African cities.  George was identified as one of the ideal cities to implement the pilot project (the other two cities are Port Alfred and Potchefstroom). George is also the host of the training workshop for all three cities and a number of international University partners, during which 45 participants are being trained for 5 days, ending 28 February 2020. After the training, each city will implement CityRAP, which will be a 3-4 month process.

 The main objectives of CityRAP are to develop local, national and sub-regional capacities for reducing vulnerability and building resilience of communities to natural and other hazards by making use of a participatory approach. According to Mr Gerhard Otto, Garden Route District Municipality Manager: Disaster Management, who is attending the training this week, he sees “CityRAP as an enabling tool, which puts us in the driver’s seat of urban resilience planning to ensure capacity retention and use”.

Over the past 5 years, CityRAP has already been conducted in 31 locations in 11 African countries.

Mathias Spaliviero [Senior Human Settlements Officer, Regional Office for Africa (ROAf), United Nations Human Settlements programme (UN-Habitat)] presenting the CityRAP Tool.
Through the successful implementation and training of this tool, city managers and municipal technicians will be able to roll-out participatory urban resilience planning. It comes at a time when the District Coordination Service Delivery Model (DCSDM) has become a talking point among Local Governments. The DCSDM is expected to narrow the distance between citizens and municipal/ district authorities, an approach complemented by CityRAP in terms of participatory governance, which will give rise to active participation by communities in development, and enable long-term planning as well as responses to immediate “burning” issues.

Stakeholders from the following organisations are in attendance

Garden Route District Municipality, Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management and Fire Rescue Services, Ndlambe Local Municipality, Stenden South Africa, JB Marks Local Municipality, City of Mutare (Zimbabwe), National Disaster Management Centre, North West Provincial Government, National Department of Human Settlements, City of George, University of Botswana, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique), University of Antananarivo (Madagascar), ARDHI University (Tanzania), Comoros University (Comoros), North-West University, Rhodes University and Stellenbosch University.

Editor’s note:

This workshop is being implemented in the context of the project, “Building Sustainable Urban Resilience in Southern Africa”, which was funded by the World Bank as part of the ACP-EU NDRR Program, with the support of the European Commission Directorate-General Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO).

Speech by Mayor Booysen at the 20th Council Meeting of Garden Route DM

COMMUNICATIONS BY THE EXECUTIVE MAYOR, CLLR MEMORY BOOYSEN, DURING THE 20TH COUNCIL MEETING OF GARDEN ROUTE DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY HELD ON 25 FEBRUARY 2020 IN GEORGE

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Before I start with my formal speech, I would like you to allow me to present a long-service award here. I don’t know how people have managed to do this, but me, I’ve never worked for more than 5 years at a place. I’m going to complete another 5 years next year and I’m going to move on again. What’s amazing is that some people just stick it out. Some might even stick it out because there is no alternative. I’m fully aware before I call this person to the front, that he stuck it out because of the atmosphere in this place. I think we’re going from strength-to-strength and people are really living it up.

The following gentleman worked here for 34 years – started off as a handy man and ended up at head office. I have also read the reasons why he’s going to retire this year – even those reasons make perfect sense.

Edward Hatches receives a certificate for his 34-years of service to the District, Executive Mayor of Garden Route District Municipality, Cllr Booysen (left), did the handover.

Mr Speaker, I must say there are a lot of spiritual Councillors amongst us. I must confess that something is happening spiritually within the Garden Route District Municipality. Just today, this is probably the 3rd spiritual message (referring to a spiritual message by Mercy James, Integrated Development Officer at GRDM), I’ve received two earlier too today – they are all intertwined and all point to the same thing – the District is going from strength-to-strength – we are indeed a sleeping giant.

In Afrikaans they say: “jy kry die wind van agter” – I believe we’re getting the wind from behind at Garden Route District Municipality. I’m going to continue to hammer on the good things we do, regardless of the nature of the game that we’re in. We’ve just had a successful launch of our regional waste landfill site, which means we will start doing our thing. I’m also aware Councillors that it’s human nature – there are already people standing in a que about where this thing was approved, where was it advertised, who are going to work at the site? We need to engage these people who are asking these questions. We can’t fold our arms and leave it. We must be aware who is doing what and where. We’ve inherited this waste project – when we were constituted in 2016. We’re just rolling out what we’ve inherited. Now is the time for us to engage with these people and the communities so that we have the same answers.

It also gives me pleasure that we some students graduate at the Francois Ferreira Academy. Without food, you’ll never be a happy man. Seventeen (17) chefs graduated and sponsored by GRDM.

We had a lot of engagements, summits and skills summits. The time has come where we need to list what came out of these engagements – I think we are going to list some of the things that aren’t listed yet, because it has not yet happened but in the pipeline.

Councillors, my office has been approached by a special adviser of Dr Blade Nzimande. They’re planning to build a new Technical College in the Garden Route. They’ve approached us at the district and they want us to engage with them to see how our ideas can be incorporated – once again, I remind you that we had a skills summit. We’re at the beginning where we will be bearing the fruits out of that.

We’ve also been approached (but not agreed to anything on paper), by an international company and this company said they’ve watched us – they love our ideas, thinking and everything we stand for and aim to achieve. They like to invest in this area. They’ve also been to the Premier’s office in Cape Town to inform the Western Cape Provincial Government that they like what they’re doing. They’re going through all our legislation that deals with approval of developments, Environmental Impact Assessments, etc. and they identified a lot of hick-ups that would hamper investments. Because of these hick-ups, they’ve asked if GRDM can accompany them to the Union building to see the President and all his Ministers. If I can go and sell what we’re trying to achieve here – I need to go. It indicates again and again that our potential has been recognised. We must grab these opportunities.

Apart from all of that – again, we’ll be recognised by the United Nations. We’re currently hosting the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

We’re also known for our way in which we deal with climate-related disasters, including health epidemics. Our team is ready – they’re dealing behind the scene in case there’s any incidence of Corona breaking out in our region.

So Mr Speaker, I’m chuffed – I want to say to everybody here I am chuffed to be the Mayor of GRDM. Spiritually all the signs are there. On that note, I want to say: Councillors please continue what you’re doing, continue debating in a constructive way. I thank you.

My apologies. Let me add on and put more meat to the bone. Councillors, you’ll remember earlier this year or starting late last year, I started using a new term. The buzzword – district model. I said the time will come where I will have to go to the union building to find out what this model is all about and what is expected of District Municipalities. It so happens that we’re the only district in the whole of the Western Cape that have been approved to be a district to pilot this model from a national and provincial perspective. Ladies and gentlemen we need to give ourselves an applause for that because it says a lot. I’m going to need your back-up.

Cape Town Weather Office Alert – Damaging Winds

A severe weather alerts issued by the Cape Town Weather Office today, 25 February 2020.

Hazard Alert Level Valid From (SAST) Valid To (SAST)
Damaging Winds Watch 27/02/20 00h00 29/02/20 00h00

1. Strong to gale force SE winds (55 to 65km/h) are expected between Cape Columbine and Cape Agulhas, as well as Cape Metropole Thursday (27/02/2020), spreading along the south coast to Mossel Bay on Friday (28/02/2020) until Saturday (29/02/2020).

2. Strong interior winds (55 to 65km/h) are expected over the Central Karoo (Western Cape) Thursday (27/02/2020) and Friday (28/02/2020).

 

 

25 February 2020 Mayor Booysen rides the world’s longest Zipline in Mossel Bay

Just under a month after its official opening which took place on 25 January 2020, Executive Mayor of Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), Cllr Memory Booysen, faced his fear of heights (and hard adventures) by riding the world-renowned Mossel Bay Zipline. He was joined by supporters from Mossel Bay Municipality and onlookers from the town.

Executive Mayor of Garden Route District Municipality, Cllr Memory Booysen and his wife, Elethu Booysen geared-up before riding the Mossel Bay Zipline.

Before his Zipline-ride, Mayor Booysen said: “This is a big thing, not only for the Garden Route but also for the Western Cape and I truly believe this should be the attraction for South Africa.” He further added “I am going to tell my peers to also come and experience it”.

According to Mayor Booysen, his wife Elethu convinced him to do it. “He is scared of heights and especially hard adventures, but we do these activities as long as I do it with him. I also gave him the option to pull out if he feels too scared,” she said. This was his also the first time Mayor Booysen did a hard adventure activity, he has only done some soft adventure activities like “hiking at Robberg in Plettenberg Bay and Wilderness,” said Elethu. The next adventures she plans to convince him to do include bungee jumping at Storms River and whale watching in Plettenberg Bay.

After the ride, Mayor Booysen said: “This is the best adrenalin-shot you can ever have, anywhere in the world – this was fun!”

Mossel Bay Zipline

This one-of-a-kind activity happens over the ocean in Mossel Bay. It is the longest over- ocean zipline in the world at 1.1km. The Zipline construction was approved by Mossel Bay Municipality in 2017. It is 90m above sea level and those doing it can reach a speed of up to 90km/h. The cost for a ride is R450 per person. More information about this adventure activity is accessible here: https://mosselbayzipline.co.za/

Mayor Booysen coming down the 90m high Zipline in Mossel Bay, which offers views of the beautiful ocean.

Regional Tourism

The Garden Route and Klein Karoo Tourism is a central point for people visiting the region to find out what’s on offer in the region in terms of activities and experiences – visit www.visitgardenrouteandkleinkaroo.com to find out more and click on the “Explore” button to see what each town in the region offers.

Editor’s note:

Hard Adventure

Hard adventure refers to activities with high levels of risk, requiring intense commitment and advanced skills. Hard tourism includes the activities like climbing mountains/rock/ice, trekking, caving etc.

Hard adventure activities are highly risked in nature. Professional guide, advance level skills are required to perform these activities. Many tourists died during climbing mountains, caving every day. There is an interesting fact that is for K2, world 2nd highest mountain, for every two people who submit one dies.

Soft Adventure

Soft adventure refers to activities with a perceived risk but low levels of risk, requiring minimal commitment and beginning skills; most of these activities are led by experienced guides. Soft tourism includes the activities like backpacking, camping, hiking, kayaking etc.

Soft adventure activities are low risk in nature. These activities are led by professional guides. Soft adventure is a popular category in adventure tourism. On average, 25% trips taken from North America and Europe are soft adventure trips.

Source: https://tourismnotes.com/adventure-tourism/