The City of Joburg is extending its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic to economically vulnerable communities, training residents on the significance of improving personal hygiene to combat the contagious virus.
Geoffrey Makhubo, the City’s Executive Mayor launched Hlapa Matsoho – a citywide handwashing campaign – on Wednesday, 22 April at the Mangolongolo informal settlement near Denver, an industrial suburb on the eastern periphery of Johannesburg.
A partnership between the City and commercial enterprises such as Lifebuoy, Liberty and Longrich, Hlapa Matsoho is designed to curb the transmission of the Covid-19 pandemic in communities of Johannesburg that are at most risk of contracting the communicable disease. It urges people to wash hands regularly with soap as a way to improve personal hygiene.
“The collaboration is strengthening the City’s intervention to contain the spread of Covid-19. I urge other corporates to join our efforts to prevent and contain the virus by donating soap and sanitizers to informal settlements and poor homeless people,” says Makhubo.
The Mayor notes that the initiative will be rolled out in all seven regions of the municipality. “The campaign marks the beginning of a journey to empower communities with information and to change habits about personal hygiene during and beyond the lockdown,” says Mayor Makhubo.
Identified as the epicentre of the pandemic in the Gauteng province, Johannesburg relies on scientific data to gauge the impact of coronavirus and administer relief in distressed communities that need municipal assistance. “Over the last three weeks we’ve implemented measures to improve water supply in informal settlements and now we want to promote hygienic practises like the regular washing of hands, as part of raising public awareness about Covid-19,” Makhubo explains.
Hlapa Matsoho aims to emphasise the central message of the National Department of Health and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), which urges people to sanitise, practice social distancing and wash their hands regularly with soap for at least 20 seconds to help prevent infections.
In addition to measures taken to flatten the curve of transmission in Johannesburg, Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMCs) have been deployed in various areas of the municipality to amplify the Hlapa’ Matsoho education campaign.
Makhubo says the City’s health department is also rolling out mass screening and testing in disadvantaged areas and Emergency Management Service personnel will continue to distribute soaps and teach residents in various informal settlements on how to maintain personal hygiene.
