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 one focus area now is on ensuring public spaces are managed safely and in accordance to Covid guidelines. 

“A lot of hard work has gone in over the past three months and lots of changes have had to be made in terms of budgets and focus. I want to commend our councils, their officials and all the municipal workers for the hard work they have been putting in.”

Updates from some municipalities across the province includes:

• The George Municipality continues to feed its communities during the Covid-19 crisis via 137 municipal soup kitchens across the municipal area, supported by the drive-through donation centre at the Civic Centre. At the height of Level 5 lockdown in April and May the municipality served 22 000 people at soup kitchens twice a day and we continue to serve nearly 9000 meals twice a day in vulnerable communities across the municipal area
• Mossel Bay Loud hailing of COVID-19 messages continued in all the wards with “let’s stop the spread / preventative care” messages Loud hailing to create awareness of door-to-door screening to take place and what to expect (all three languages) pre-emptive in the areas targeted for home screening.
• With the objective of creating more awareness in communities the West Coast District Municipality availed its command bus to assist with loud hailing in the Saldanha, Swartland and Bergrivier municipalities. The loud hailing was done to support the existing education and awareness interventions of the local municipalities
• Stellenbosch Municipality has provided to date, approximately 30 000 food parcels and more than 150 000 meals to communities from the Stellenbosch Municipal Area in cooperation with various partners including Stellenbosch Unite, DSD and NGOs. Offices, depots and vehicles continuously cleaned and sanitised.
• The City of Cape Town has assisted nearly 3000 Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises to safely get back to business, handing over toolkits to SMMEs across the metro. The city has supported more than 80 soup kitchens across the metro with equipment and ingredients. 

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.”

Issued by The Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning