Despite the area being heavily affected by the recent rainstorms, the municipality is working together with various stakeholders to minimise the impact.
A TOTAL of 18 vaccination teams comprising a total of 64 vaccinators will be responsible for the first phase of vaccination, which is targeted at healthcare workers in the John Taolo Gaetsewe (JTG) District.
This was announced during a virtual meeting of the JTG Municipality Covid-19 Joint Operations Centre (JOC).
The JTG district had been severely affected by heavy rainstorms last month.
The team gave an update on the services that were affected and how the municipality in partnership with other stakeholders had ensured that communities have access to basic services.
The district communications officer, Dineo Leserwane said the municipality and government departments had assisted hundreds of affected and struggling community members with food supplies.
“The Department of Social Development is leading the processes of providing social relief to displaced families following the heavy rains that affected the district and had resulted in the Provincial Government declaring the district as a disaster area.
“A total of 532 food parcels were distributed to families in the three local municipalities during last two weeks.
“In the Joe Morolong Municipality a total of 312 food parcels were distributed, Gasegonyana Municipality a total of 100 food parcels were distributed and in the Gamagara Municipality, a total of 120 food parcels were donated. A further 2 853 food vouchers will be distributed during the week of February 22, 2021 to qualifying and affected families,” said Leserwane.
She said organisations such as Gift of the Givers also contributed to ease the plight of communities.
“The meeting also appreciated the contribution of 300 social relief packages from Gift of the Givers Foundation which augmented government efforts to provide immediate social relief to affected households. Government continues to encourage all other social partners and the private sector to work together to assist families affected by the floods in the district,” she said.
Leserwane said they had challenges accessing other villages due to the badly damaged roads.
“Providing relief to these families is made difficult by the damaged roads in the Joe Morolong Municipality but working with other stakeholders the department we are exploring other mechanisms to reach the affected families,” said Leserwane.
She said the opening of schools were not majorly affected by current crises.
“The reopening of schools for learners from February 15, 2021 was without major incidents as schools were ready. The registration of learners is ongoing and the department acknowledged that there are a few challenges that were encountered with the online learner registration system. The department confirmed that the district office is working with all the 171 schools in the district to ensure that the new academic year is without challenges.
“The National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) is continuing and schools are feeding both attending and non-attending learners,” she said.
Leserwane added that the municipality is working with a team from the national Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation to assess the damage to the homes of community members.
“The team from human settlements is working with the municipality for physical verifications of the applications that have been submitted to the national department. The team will also be monitoring temporary shelters that were allocated to the municipality. A total of 52 houses were assessed as per the application by the municipality so as to ensure the finalisation of the process to support these families with temporary shelters.
“The municipality reported that although the current assessment is that 629 houses were destroyed due to the floods in the district, the application to the national department for the Emergency Housing Grant (EHG) is happening through phases, and that there will be ongoing work by the municipality to ensure that they ultimately support as many families as possible with temporary shelter,” Leserwane said.
