News
City of Ekurhuleni signs
MOU with Rescue South Africa
T
he City of Ekurhuleni and Rescue South Africa have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate as a disaster management and response partnership. The MOU will see that any combination of their resources, skills, expertise and experience be used for the greater benefit of the municipal area as a whole, which includes specialised technical urban search and rescue (USAR) emergencies and disasters as a result of natural, technological or human caused events. Moshema Mosia and Ian Sher
On 2 June 2016, the City of Ekurhuleni and the Rescue South Africa enhanced their partnership, by signing the MOU in the field of disaster and emergency services at the Leon Ferreira Fire Station in Boksburg. The ultimate purpose is to strengthen the ongoing partnership between the two agencies, which will allow for optimal response to emergencies in Ekurhuleni. Programme director, Previn Govender said, “Today is a ground breaking day as the City of Ekurhuleni nurtures new strategic relationships such as the MOU between Ekurhuleni and Rescue South Africa, a first to enter into such an agreement.”
Ian Sher, Moshema Mosia, Dr Elias Sithole and Previn Govender
Rescue SA team
10 | FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL
Moshema Mosia, Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Service (DEMS) head of department was present at the signing and believes that the joining of these forces, places the City of Ekurhuleni in a favourable position, in terms of responding to disasters of any nature. Mosia was deployed as part of the incident command structure of the South African rescue mission to India during the Gujarat Earthquake in 2001. “I feel deeply honoured to be part of this. The City of Ekurhuleni and Rescue South Africa have successfully partnered on previous occasions, where the city authorised the deployment of DEMS personnel on missions coordinated by Rescue South Africa. With this agreement we are excited to enhance Volume 4 | No 1