Firefighters and Emergency Services are also part of the team that is providing essential services in South Africa as their departments are very important to help the government in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus and also to help South Africans if anything should happen when they are in lockdown as instructed to do so by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
If the fire should start anywhere in South Africa, firefighters are always on standby to deal with that and they are also operating 24 hours as they used to. All nine provinces’ municipalities have big teams of firefighters who are capable of putting away any sort of fire that might start anywhere due to different reasons. The government is also training young people to be firefighters where they should complete their training at the end of 2020 and work under government through internships.
There are certain areas in South Africa where wildfires start anytime. Firefighters are always in those areas to make sure that nothing is destroyed when wildfires start. Cape Town is one of the cities known for wildfires to start anytime and sometimes those fires lasts for days. During lockdown the government has supplied the city with additional firefighters to make sure that they are able to put out any fire should it start.
On the other side, the private and public ambulance services are ready 24 hours everyday with additional workers available on a daily basis. Government ambulance drivers are promised double salaries by government while private ambulances are also providing their drivers with incentives as the government subsidized them to help the public during lockdown. All South Africans are allowed to use private ambulance services should the need arise and they won’t be liable for costs as the government will take care of that.
The Department of Health is making sure that hey have enough personnel at clinics and hospitals as they have called back all retired nurses and also temporarily employed the new nurses who just completed training. The aim is to make sure they have enough medical workers who are capable of doing testes and provide other medical services especially in rural areas.
Additional safety equipment has been provided to the firefighters department and the ambulance services so that they also supply any rural people they meet whenever they are on duty. Safety masks and gloves are needed in rural areas as people there cannot afford to buy them so the government has decided to provide clinics and hospitals with them so that the people can come and collect.
