Rand Show brought City closer to residents

05 April 2016

 

After 10 days of fun, spiced up with hair-raising rides and music from the top drawer, the curtain finally came down on the Rand Show on Sunday April 3.

 

Joining hundreds of exhibitors packing up their belongings and branding materials were scores of City of Johannesburg officials who spent the past week-and-a-half engaging communities and responding to queries.

One of the officials was Emergency Management Services Spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi, who took a break from fighting fires and rescuing trapped cats to spend time at the show.

“We’ve been engaging with the public, addressing their complaints and advising them on what to do to get help,” he said.

Mulaudzi said the EMS also provided the youth and students with information on the various career opportunities available in emergency services.

“Most of the complaints we received were about ambulances’ prolonged response time, while other residents complained that they had no fire stations in their areas,” said Mulaudzi.

He said he had to explain the difficulty ambulances had to encounter when responding to calls in densely populated informal settlements. Mulaudzi said most residents of Kya Sands had complained that there was no fire station in Cosmo City.

“We understand that Kya Sands is one of the places where a lot of fire outbreaks happen and a fire station in Cosmo City will ensure that we respond quicker and put out the fires before they claim lives and cause damage.”

A fire station is currently being built in Cosmo City and is expected to become operational by November.  Joburg Water officials captured residents’ details on its database so it could inform them about future disruptions of water services in their areas via SMS. Soweto resident Simphiwe Ndaba, 42, of Meadowlands, said she complained on Monday about a burst sewer at the Rand Show and it was fixed the next day.

“I’m very happy the pipe was fixed just a day after I reported it,” she said.