Lockdown: Yes, your rubbish will still be collected in Joburg
The City of Johannesburg’s member of the mayoral committee for environment and infrastructure services, Mpho Moerane, said the screening was part of employees’ wellness programme.
“We are here to ensure that our workers are healthy and those with symptoms will be taken into isolation and assisted medically. Fortunately, today we have not identified anyone.
“I am confident that we won’t have anyone to test. We ensure that employees leaving our depots are armed with sanitisers, masks and gloves, and we always remind them to wash their hands with water and soap.
“Our employees are very vulnerable because they deal with dustbins daily and those bins are touched by many people. It is our responsibility to make sure that they are healthy at all times,” said Moerane.
“Sometimes they don’t put on their masks and I have personally stopped to ask them to put on their masks. They claim that the masks are irritating, but we remind them daily to wear masks at all times.
“They are also faced with the challenge of picking up unhygienic objects from the ground. It is our duty to keep them healthy daily,” Moerane said.
He said the coronavirus was a game changer and had taught them many things.
“What we are doing is sustainable and we are going to do it beyond Covid-19, to make sure that their well-being is taken care of,” said Moerane.
