Disaster Management Centre and Microsoft Office, MessageSoft SMS System, Coltron Tornado two-way radio communication system, Motorola Tetra radio systems, the Remrad communication system by Sysman, a CCTV system installed and managed by Mafoko Security and a wireless network system provided by Brilliantel,” said Casper Jordaan, the disaster management centre coordinator, son of Jorrie Jordaan. Casper Jordaan has been the centre’s coordinator since 2013, however, he started working at the centre in 1994 as a temporary call taker. To integrate their hard copies with their IT software, they scan hard copies of files and upload it onto a server. “This server is our intranet page provider. We then create a new link for the scanned documents and upload these documents onto our intranet page. This makes documents readily available in real-time,” added Jordaan.
One of the new editions to the fleet
Recent major incidents Recent major incidents include hailstorms in November 2014 and January 2016, which caused severe damage to property. “We also had a major wildfire in the Hekpoort area in 2015 that caused millions of Rands loss of livestock. Challenges Some of the challenges faced by the centre include staff shortages and lack of funding. “The main reason behind this is that part of the funding we received came from the province and the provincialisation of the emergency medical services caused a shortage of permanent staff and funds. We also lack sufficient resources due to the absence of funding from national and provincial Government. We have also experience a lot of downtime,” said Mokoto.
The vehicles are distinctly branded personnel and facilities but can give and receive help whenever it is needed. Interagency involvement include all internal departments, local municipalities departments, provincial departments , certain national departments , Eskom,
Transnet, Telkom, the post office, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), CBOs, traditional leaders, volunteers, South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as the South African Defence Force (SADF) when needed for specific task.
He elaborated, “Equipment shortfalls include the need for more Tetra radios to communicate with stakeholders, which will be an advantage. We are currently in process of developing a new telecommunications system with Brilliantel and this should be in place and active before the end of this year.” Interagency involvement The foundation of the West Rand's emergency planning and response is a district-wide mutual aid system, which is designed to ensure that adequate resources, facilities and other support are provided to jurisdictions whenever their own resources prove to be inadequate to cope with a given situation(s). The basis for the system is the West Rand Master Mutual Aid Agreement. It created a formal process wherein each jurisdiction retains control of its own Volume 2
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