Soweto learners receive lessons on public safety

10 May 2017

 

Officials from the City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) visited learners at Tshedimoso Primary School in Mofolo, Soweto, in Region D, on Tuesday May 9 to give them lessons on public safety.

 

The officials also provided the learners with general safety tips on how to respond to emergency situations. The safety awareness campaign formed part of the City’s ongoing civic education drive targeting primary schools in the region, according to Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (CRUM) Regional Operations Manager Palesa Moshoeshoe.

She said the programme was also expected to have an impact on the broader community as the learners taking part in the initiative had also been taught and encouraged to spread the message to their friends and families.

“We are specifically focusing on primary schools for now because we have found that children in this age group are the most vulnerable. Also, in case of an emergency, children have to be given priority,” she said. 

“We have found that once they grasp what the programme is about they will be more practical with it.”

Sheila Sopaqa, an EMS Community Educator in Region D, said the safety awareness campaign would hopefully contribute to the reduction in the number of fire incidents in winter, which has already set.

“This is the time when we are inundated with emergency calls from people across the region. This is mostly because during the winter season people use unsafe methods to keep their homes warm. Many people, including children, have died because they did not know how to respond to such emergencies as they did not have any knowledge of how to react to those emergencies.

“We have also found that people do not know our emergency numbers. As a result, a person who could have been saved ends up dying because no one knows the number to call,” said Sopaqa.

JMPD Officer Tshidiso Monareng spoke about road safety, saying it was critically important for learners to know designated crossing spots.

Tshedimoso Primary School Principal Bongani Mgoqui said he hoped the initiative would contribute enormously to increased public safety awareness. “We hope the initiative will be well-received by the community around the school which will, in turn, make our society safer.”

Tshedimoso is the second primary school to have hosted a public safety awareness campaign over the past three months. The first was Mxolisi Primary School in Jabulani.