Author: Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe

Posters at bus stops in town welcoming Thembalethu passengers; bus stops and operational facilities inside Thembalethu nearing completion; communication champions engaging with prospective passengers … These are but some of the visible signs that GO GEORGE is getting ready to roll out service to this community. Thembalethu has been waiting eagerly to share in the benefits of an affordable and scheduled bus service.

“We realise that Thembalethu residents have been disappointed before when we tried to roll out bus services to this area,” said Morné Lakay, Acting Manager of GO GEORGE. “This time, we are determinedly pushing through, even though it is taking a little bit longer than planned. It is heart-warming to hear from our engagement with Thembalethu residents, how much they are looking forward to having access to our service and the convenience and savings it will bring.”

Infrastructure

As with all previous roll-outs to other areas of town, the service to Thembalethu will launch with the infrastructure needed to roll out smoothly. This will be expanded as user patterns and passenger needs become clear once they start using the service.

To date, 11 indented bays in Nelson Mandela Boulevard and 129 bus stops for use by the Thembalethu routes have already been constructed. A limited number of bus shelters will initially be erected, just in time for roll-out.

According to Lakay, bus shelters all over the system are placed at stops where the most passengers wait to board a bus. “Since we first need to monitor user patterns after activation of the service to an area, we start out with temporary shelters and follow up with the permanent shelters which are quite costly to manufacture and install. This is not the kind of structure we would like to move.”

Information about the Thembalethu service

The GO GEORGE communications team has ben visiting businesses and organisations all over town to engage with staff residing in Thembalethu. Anyone who would like to request an informational visit to their staff can call the GO GEORGE Call Centre on 0800 044 044 from 05:00 until 20:00, seven days a week.

The George Municipality’s Fire Services and Disaster Management is proud to announce that it has added a new baby to its sea rescue equipment, an 1800 CC Jetski that is combined with pontoons of rubberduck which is now called a Jetrib. They are exclusively bought from Droomers Yamaha in Cape Town which has the patent. This will be the first 1800cc Jetrib in South Africa.

“This rescue vessel is a must-have for surf sea rescue,” says the George Municipality’s Chief Fire Officer and Disaster Management, Cornelius Barnard. “The agility of the larger engine allows for faster response and movement in between the waves, the safety of the pontoon floating on top of the water increases the rescue capabilities of the Jetrib in shallow surf much more efficiently than what a normal or smaller rubber duck would provide.”

The Jetrib is operated by two people, a skipper and a rescue swimmer and then can carry a third person as a victim. “The Jetrib is an extremely versatile sea vessel, and we are very proud to have it as part of the George Municipality’s fleet of rescue equipment, especially since it is in time for the season. The Skipper, Fire Fighter Johan Troskie, is a very well-versed and skilled skipper for these vessels. The skipper, the rescue team and the new vessel together make a great contribution to our ability to do shallow surf rescue during the season,” Mr Cornelius Barnard added.

Please watch the video of the new Jetrib: https://youtu.be/yNCHf4fAKvc

Ends.

Media Release issued on behalf of NSRI

COMBATING THE DANGERS OF RIP CURRENTS IN THE GARDEN ROUTE AREA
NSRI Releases Fluoresceine Dye to highlight the danger of rip currents

15 December 2022: In the heart of South Africa’s Garden Route in the Southern Cape area you will find Herolds Bay. This is a peaceful place blessed with the songs of the wind and the ocean. However, there are dangerous RIP currents in this area.

This is according to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) who recently used a harmless green dye to highlight rip currents at Herolds Bay and Wilderness beach. We believe that Rip currents are the greatest danger that holidaymakers will face when they flock to the beaches during this holiday season and want to draw this danger to the attention of people holidaying at the coast.

“Many people find rip currents hard to see and so we have used Fluoresceine dye in a once-off deployment to highlight a couple of them so that we could photograph and film the dye being pulled out in the rips. We will use these photos and video as educational tools to teach beach safety,” said NSRI’s Wilderness Station Commander Mike Vonk.

“Many beaches around South Africa have powerful rip currents which can pull a swimmer away from the beach to behind where the waves form in a couple of minutes,” he continued.

“A rip current will not pull you under the water, but will pull a swimmer away from the beach,” said Mike. “If caught in a rip the most important thing is not to panic. Swim out of the current at 90 degrees to the direction in which you are being pulled and use the waves to swim back to shore. Or flip on your back and float until the current runs out of strength and you can swim back to the beach,” he added.

NSRI Drowning Prevention manager Andrew Ingram has some important advice on how to assist a person caught in a rip current. “Call NSRI for help by dialing 112 from your cell phone, save the NSRI’s National Emergency Operations Centre in your phone (087 094 9774) or Google ‘Sea Rescue emergency’ for the closest NSRI stations’ number. And never go into the water to attempt a rescue without taking something that floats with you,” adds Andrew. Our Pink Rescue Buoys are available on many beaches as well as some rivers and dams to be used as emergency flotation for anyone to use to protect themselves while they attempt to help a swimmer in distress. Surfboards or body boards are also good choices to protect yourself and help the person in difficulty if you decide to go into the water to help.”

“Out of 131 rescues that we know of, where a Pink Buoy has been used to help someone in difficulty, 96 of these people needed help because they were swimming in a rip current,” said Andrew.

“Pink Buoys save lives, and we appeal to everyone to take note of where they are placed on beaches. They are there for use in an emergency and should be put back after use,” he said. “If you see that a Pink Buoy is missing, please call the cell number on the sign and let us know.”

“We encourage people to swim at a beach that is lifeguarded and to swim between the lifeguard’s flags,” said Mike Vonk. “If lifeguards are not on duty, it is safer not to swim,” he added.

“Parents please watch your children when they are in or near water and remember that drowning is silent. Please save the emergency numbers in your cellphone before you need it and have a safe holiday,” concludes Mike.

Note to editors:

1. Fluoresceine Dye is harmless. It is used by doctors to see issues in patients’ eyes, by plumbers to detect leaking pipes and by fishermen to attract fish. The NSRI has a permit issued by DFFE to release the dye in the educational and research work that the organization is doing regarding rip currents.

2. Please see the NSRI Rip current video on our YouTube channel which explains how rip currents work – https://youtu.be/9GBUBDMENfw .

3. If anybody would like to help us with our Pink Rescue Buoy program as a Pink Buoy custodian or Pink Buoy volunteer please contact us on our social media channels or email us: pinkrescuebuoys@searescue.org.za .

Kindest Regards,
KUHLE MKIZE
COMMUNICATIONS & PR MANAGER

George Municipality wishes to congratulate and welcome a new director for Corporate Services, Krishenthrie Moodley who started on 12 December 2022 bringing extensive experience in local government spanning over 20 years.

Moodley’s local government experience started in KZN where she held the position of Director for Corporate and Community Services at the District Municipal level, and Director thereafter in the Eastern Cape as a Director for Corporate Services for the past Five (5) years. Her wealth of experience is backed by a Bachelor of Social Sciences Honours degree from the University of Natal in KwaZulu-Natal as well as Municipal Finance Management Programme (MFMP).

Sharing her vision for George, Moodley intends to contribute positively to the growth of the institution’s human capital. “As an institution of excellence, my vision for George Municipality is to embed a culture of high productivity, service delivery, good governance, and institutional efficiency.  The establishment of a leadership pipeline and digitization of training is a key focus in driving change and elevating the skills set of our Human Capital,” Moodley said.

“I look forward to being a part of the transformation of George Municipality and embracing and enhancing the human capital to reach its full potential for the benefit of individual growth and development but more importantly for the communities we serve.”

“When I’m not engrossed in affairs of local government, I enjoy spinning, renovating old furniture and reading.  I am also passionate about self-discovery through the study of spiritual literature,” Moodley concluded.

ENDS.

As part of the holiday safety awareness and welcoming programme, the Executive Mayor of George, Alderman Leon van Wyk, the members of the Executive Mayoral Committee, the Municipal Manager, and the Chairperson of the George Business Chamber welcomed tourists and visitors to the heart of the Garden Route, George, during a friendly Mayoral Roadblock that was held at the entrance to George, N9 on Wednesday, 14 December 2022.

The entourage consisted of Ald van Wyk, Dr Willie Cilliers Chairperson of the George Business Chamber, Executive Deputy Mayor Raybin Figland, Portfolio Councillor for Corporate Services and Human Resources Christiaan Neethling, Councillor Johan du Toit MPAC Chairperson, Portfolio Councillor for Community Safety Charlotte Clarke and the Municipal Manager Dr Michele Gratz who handed over holiday goody-bags to motorists.

Also present, were key stakeholders and role-players in tourism, safety and transport such as GO GEORGE represented by James Robb the Acting Public Transport Oversight Official, George Tourism (including Wilderness and Uniondale Tourism), Municipal Traffic Services, George Fire Services and Disaster Management, municipal Law Enforcement, Cluster CPF Chairperson, Rupert Pretorius and the South African Police Service (SAPS).  To add more excitement for our younger visitors, the ever-popular mascots Georgie from GO GEORGE and Daantjie Kat from the George Traffic Services were there for entertainment.

“Today we are conducting a holiday safety awareness programme to welcome visitors to George who will be spending their holidays here; we are accompanied by our community safety services and display of equipment, to demonstrate our readiness to receive and host our visitors and tourists and to ensure a safe, festive holiday for all,” said Ald van Wyk.

One of the highlights of this year’s Mayoral Friendly Roadblock was the participation of the George Business Chamber, represented by Chairperson Dr Willie Cilliers. “As the world of business, we warmly welcome our clients, and it is a great pleasure to be here to witness people coming on holiday. It is extremely important to us as businesses to get the people here and strengthen our partnership with the Municipality and other stakeholders during this annual event. We look forward to a bumper season and sustaining our business into the next year, 2023.

Municipal Manager Dr Gratz expressed her satisfaction with the success of the friendly Mayoral Roadblock. “I’m pleased with the success of the Mayoral Roadblock; this was certainly a great display of George’s readiness for the festive season. Our emergency personnel as well as all service delivery Departments are prepared to ensure maximum safety for visitors and locals and to ensure that our visitors enjoy their stay in a clean and well-run city where all services are working”.

PLEASE WATCH THE MARAL ROADBLOCK VIDEO: https://youtu.be/f9NXEcz6jek

For quick links to all the tourism information you may need in the greater George area, please follow the links below for quick access to Tourism Information, Safety for Visitors Information and Useful Municipal Contacts!

https://www.george.gov.za/…/tourism/safety-for-visitors/

https://www.george.gov.za/contact/

http://www.visitgeorge.co.za/

ENDS.

At the time of writing, we are experiencing welcome soft rains in George. Water restrictions have been implemented following lower-than-normal rains in 2022 which has resulted in the level of our Garden Route Dam dropping below 50% of its increased capacity.

The catchment area for our Dam is relatively small, dependent on the run-off from the Outeniqua Mountains. In 2020 and 2021, George’s annual rainfall was over 800mm and 1000mm respectively, compared to only 600mm up to November 2022. During normal average rainfall years, inflow to the Dam would therefore be sufficient for ten months when full.

Since December 2021, the daily usage of water has risen by 17-20% partly due to in-migration. With the aging of water infrastructure, it is also evident that there are more leakages and breakages throughout the water network. Over the past two years, the municipality has progressively allocated more financial and other resources to address pipe replacement and network management. We are adding more pressure release valves, meters, smarting metering devices and telemetry to the system to improve management of the system.

Over the past year, it has become noticeable that usage levels risen from 75% to 90% of the maximum treatment capacity, even exceeding 100% on some days, before allowing for losses through pipe bursts and regular maintenance needed at treatment plants. This has periodically placed enormous pressure on the water available in the reservoirs.

Readers will be aware that construction is currently underway on a 50% increase in treatment capacity, a R480 million project which is due for completion in 2025. In the meantime, we have begun to undertake refurbishment work on some of the treatment modules at the old water works to improve their efficiency. To cater for the increased usage of water, a temporary water treatment plant that can treat an extra 5 million litres of water (roughly 15% of daily usage) is being installed. This plant will be connected into the network by mid-December. In the past few weeks, in addition to the above projects, there have been unplanned interruptions in Eskom’s supply of electricity. This combination of interruptions caused our main reservoirs to be depleted to only having 2-3 hours’ water available at times. Even though communication alerts were sent out by the municipality they were largely ignored.

The water restrictions have accordingly been introduced to appeal to consumers to understand that our water resources are limited due to lower rainfall. Water is essential for the existence of earth’s inhabitants. Our appeal is therefore that each household or business should reduce usage by 15% to ensure that we can stretch our available water until we receive sufficient rain to replenish the water stored in the Dam.

Ald L van Wyk

Executive Mayor of George

George Municipality is the first electricity provider in the country to pilot freely licensed software that automates the reading, processing, and billing of electricity smart meter data. The wheeling pilot that was approved by Council and offered limited wheeling as a service is open to everyone who wants to wheel energy.

The first wheeling transaction took place in May 2022 at George Municipality, following the signing of the use-of-system agreements in July 2021. The billing process has for many years been done manually, requiring extensive time for verification and preparation of bills once the data was retrieved from the meters.

“The need for this freely licensed software pilot became evident when we considered the scaling of wheeling and renewable energy on the George Municipality’s electricity grid. The manual billing process was one of the main challenges and resolving this meant reducing reliance and pressure on key human resources, reducing potential errors that could occur in the billing process. Engagement with Open Access Energy on showcasing their software that they license for free, has assisted in addressing the challenge for us and we are now piloting the automation of our metering and billing services.” said Mr Bongani Mandla, the director of electrotechnical services at George Municipality.

Wheeling is the delivery of electricity generated by a private operator in one location to a buyer or off-taker in another location via a third-party network (Utility or Municipality).

According to Gerjo Hoffman, Chief-Executive-Officer and co-founder of Open Access Energy, the software company aims to boost the use of renewable energy by simplifying wheeling. “Our products aim to automate wheeling and serve the needs of anyone that wants to wheel energy. Our initial focus is South Africa, but our future aspiration is to offer solutions in all emerging markets globally,” says Hoffman.

Open Access Energy currently has two products in the market. Access Energy is a freely licensed software solution that reads smart meters, stores the meter data in a meter data sharing system, and exposes that data to municipalities. The software allows the Municipality to create and load their electricity tariffs and then apply them to a bill. The final bill is sent to the municipalities Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which then sends the bill to the end customer.

Open Access Energy’s second product is called EnergyPro. This Software as a Service (SaaS) solution focuses on IPPs and Energy traders and assists wheelers to wheel to multiple customers. “Our clients are renewable energy producers and energy traders who want to sell their energy to customers all over South Africa,” says Hoffman.

“Mr Bongani Mandla highlighted that the current George Municipality wheeling pilot consists of trade between one generator and four off-takers through Enpower Trading (a NERSA licensed Energy Trader) and this entire process has now been automated using Open Access Energy’s software. The Municipality is working on further improvements to its wheeling projects and to incentivise the private sector (both generators and off-takers) to participate in this program. These include creating a platform for customers to view their accounts and access their consumption and billing data in real-time, forming various committees to expedite the process of standardising the use-of-system contracts as well as moving from the 30-minute reconciliation to a Time-of-Use reconciliation.

“It is essential to thank our Engineering Services team under the leadership of Mr Kobus Wilken and Mr Derek Baxter for their determination in driving this process, as well as Open Access Energy leadership for piloting this freely licensed software with George Municipality. We will continuously keep pushing hard to provide the people of George an improved electricity service,” said Mr Bongani Mandla

ENDS.

The Executive Mayor of George, Ald Leon van Wyk recently visited Emmaüs, a protective work centre for disabled adults to show appreciation for the valuable work that is being done by the centre. Mayor van Wyk visited the centre on Friday, 2 December 2022, a day before the organisation’s annual X-mas market.

According to Emmaüs, the X-mas market was a huge success. “The first Emmaüs Bazaar after Covid-19 was a huge and very successful event, and we would like to thank the Community for their excellent support.  Despite load-shedding and bad weather we still managed to host a very big fundraising event with a lovely atmosphere.  We could see that the community of George was hungry for a good old-fashioned Emmaüs get-together since 2019,” said Emmaus

We wish to thank the Executive Mayor, Ald Leon van Wyk and Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz for their visit to our Centre. Also, a very big thank you to all our donors and volunteers, without their contributions and help our bazaar would not have been such a huge success.

Mayor van Wyk wishes to encourage the public, businesses, and donors to continue supporting Emmaüs as they have recently lost about 40% of their funding. This organisation is doing an amazing job and is relying heavily on public support. Emmaus can only fulfil its vision of providing adult disabled persons with optimal protection and care if the community continues to support them.

Emmaüs provides the adult disabled with accommodation, food, and therapeutic job opportunities irrespective of race, culture, sex, or religious beliefs. About 85 beneficiaries receive transport and meals daily.

Emmaüs is located at 6 Memorium Street, George, the head of the centre, Mrs. Elsabee Badenhorst can be reached on admin@emmausgeorge.co.za or 044 873 4196.

ENDS.

The Executive Mayor of George, Alderman Leon van Wyk, accompanied by Councillors Marlene Barnardt, the Chief Whip, Erika Brown councillor for Ward 3 and Donovan Gultig, councillor for Ward 18 visited the George Night Shelter on Friday, 2 December 2022. This is part of a series of visits the Executive Mayor and his entourage visited to appreciate and show support for social and community development programmes and activities in the City of George.

There are about 120 people in the night shelter every evening. The night shelter opens its doors to the homeless for R25 an evening which includes a cooked meal and breakfast. There is a permanent social worker based at the shelter who assists the homeless to apply for their IDs, helps them create CVs and assists them in applying for work. The George Night Shelter enjoys the support of both the George Municipality and the Department of Social Development (DSD), as well as donations from the community and businesses.

The assistant manager, Mr Chris Classen, gave the mayor and his delegation a tour of the shelter and spoke about their zero tolerance when it comes to the consumption of any substances. He said that occupants are expected to leave the shelter at 08h00 and return by 15h00, upon their return they are tested with a breathalyser. He also mentioned that the social worker based at the shelter tries to reunite occupants with their families. The delegation was also shown an artwork from a woman who lives in the night shelter, Tanja Roux who is pleased to share her work.

“I am highly grateful for the work being done at this night shelter. We have a homelessness problem in our town. Our service industry who are lending a helping hand should be commended for their work, the social workers, people like Mr Classen – you help make our town better with the selfless work you do,” said Alderman van Wyk.

ENDS.