South Africa: Premier Alan Winde thanks emergency services’ staff for keeping province safe over the festive season

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Premier Alan Winde thanked the countless emergency services’ staff who worked long hours, often under difficult circumstances, to keep Western Cape residents and visitors to our province safe over the festive season.

"These dedicated and brave women and men continue to make us all very proud. While many of us were able to get some much-needed rest, our firefighters and other disaster management officials, including so many volunteers, worked round the clock battling blazes to keep us safe from harm. Municipal law enforcement and traffic officials and the South African Police Service members all worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of residents and visitors on the roads and at tourist attractions. Your commitment and hard work do not go unnoticed. We as the Western Cape Government are deeply appreciative of all you do for our communities,” said Premier Winde.

The Premier visited the Cape Town Central Fire Station this week to personally thank firefighters. He was told that the 2023/24 festive period has been the busiest from a disaster management perspective in many years. He told officials, “Despite the pressures of your job, all of you across our province stepped up, as you do throughout the year, responding to all manner of fires and other incidents. You are all heroes. Thank you for also stepping in and helping each other:  when the Cape Town fire team was under pressure during the devastating Simonstown fire, teams from adjacent municipalities stepped in to help; and then a few days later when the Drakenstein municipality needed help during the Paardeberg fire, the support was reciprocated. Thank you to our colleagues in the Provincial Disaster Management Centre for coordinating the support we provide each other in emergencies across the province.”

Premier Winde also visited two popular restaurants in the Cape Town CBD: Grub and Vine, and The Clay Café. He thanked management and staff for making visitors and locals feel welcome in the Mother City saying, “Part of the Western Cape tourist experience is the warmth and professionalism of our hospitality industry. From the bar staff and waitrons to the chefs and cleaners, all our tourism role players worked incredibly hard to ensure our tourism industry remains world-class. This sector is vital for job creation and economic growth.”

By all accounts, it appears to have been a bumper tourism season, as was expected. He added, “All role players in this sector seem to have capitalised on this, which is great news for our economy. I cannot wait to hear the latest official job statistics.”

At the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway , one of the many jewels in the Western Cape’s “tourism crown,” the Premier once again expressed his gratitude to staff for working long hours and urged them to keep up the spectacular work that they do in 2024. While speaking to staff, Premier Winde was given the “honour” of informing most of them that they could go home early as the cableway could not operate due to strong winds. Amid cheers, one staffer joked, “Mr Winde, you blow us away.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Western Cape Government: Department of the Premier.