March 17, 2005
By Anish Abraham
ACCOMPANIED by a brass band and a melodious choir in full swing, the Mayor of Johannesburg Councillor Amos Masondo opened a Besafe Centre, which focuses on child safety education, at the Jabulani Fire Station on Wednesday, 16 March 2005.
Besafe, an acronym for Basic Emergency, Safety and Fire Education, is a Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) programme that strives to educate children about safety. The first Besafe Centre was opened at the unit's headquarters at Florida Lake in 2003.
Dr Ntombi Gule, head of Emergency Services, Pascal Moloi, city
manager, and the mayor, Councillor Amos Masondo, tour the premises
Among those who attended the opening were City Manager Pascal Moloi, head of Joburg EMS Audrey Gule, Johannesburg Chief Operations Officer Sibongile Mazibuko and Sizakele Nkosi, the member of the mayoral committee for public safety.
Speeches by the various dignitaries were punctuated by music from the EMS choir and the Dobsonville Brass Band, while children from Entandweni Primary School, Shalomane School, Happiness Daycare Centre and Siyakhula Daycare Centre entertained the guests with dance and song.
Gule gave out some sombre statistics, saying the Jabulani Fire Station attended to more than 12 000 calls a year, the highest call volume in South Africa. Of these incidents, 30 percent involved children, "so we decided to target schools in the area for the education programme".
Fire was said to the main cause of accidental death of children under the age of five and in total 41 percent of accidental deaths were caused by fires and burn injuries. Apart from the human toll, fires wreaked havoc on the economy, with the Fire Protection Association of South Africa statistics finding fires caused R2,3 billion worth of damage to property in 1999.
Councillor Masondo spoke of the dangers posed to children by paraffin, electricity cables and open manholes, saying they were vulnerable and depended on adults to take care of them. "We also have problems with people crossing streams in Johannesburg … all it takes is a storm to turn a little stream into a raging river."
At the centre, children will be taught what to do in emergencies, how to contact EMS personnel and to stay away from construction areas and power cables.
The mayor expressed his satisfaction with the Qaphela! Programme and its mascot, Papa Q. The children were introduced to two other mascots involved in the safety education programme, namely Tappy, a Joburg Water mascot, and Commander Cool, who teaches children about the dangers of fire.
Councillor Masondo urged all members of the community to ensure that safety standards and requirements were met in all buildings. "Without people's co-operation, very little can be achieved," he said.
Children from Shaloman School sang for Karabo Gwala, a young child who died after falling into an open manhole. One of them asked the mayor to do everything in his power to ensure such an accident never happened again.
Nkosi said the City would develop four more Besafe Centres, in Dube, Alexandra, Orange Farm and Berea. She also urged residents to become Friends of the Station, whereby they volunteer their services to help at the station.
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