Tag: tips

Are You Ready to Go with the Cape Town Winter Flow? Essential Tips for a Smooth Season + Loadshedding Updates from the City

As the chilly and wet winter season approaches, it’s time to prepare ourselves for the unique challenges and delights that it brings.

From the brisk air to the rain-soaked streets, Cape Town winter demands our attention and readiness. Here, we explore practical tips to help you navigate the winter months with ease. From maintaining your home and business’ functionality to prioritising safety on the roads, these essential suggestions will ensure you’re well-prepared to go with the flow this winter. Let’s dive in and discover how to make the most of the wet season while keeping everything running smoothly.

Cape Town winter readiness tips

Are You Ready to Go with the Winter Flow? Clear the Clutter from Your Gutter Keep your gutters in optimal condition by ensuring they are undamaged, securely attached to your building, and free from any branches. Shine A Little Light Combat the winter darkness by checking your outdoor lights. Make sure they are waterproof, functioning properly, and free from obstructions. Trim Your Trees Give your trees the care they deserve. Trim any dead, diseased, or damaged branches to prevent breakage during storms. Stop the Slip Create a safe environment by adding doormats, anti-slip coatings, and slip grip strips to stairs and slippery tiles, reducing the risk of accidents. Clean Your Cameras Maintain clear visibility by cleaning the lenses of your cameras. Remove dust particles that can cause a muddy mess when it rains. Be Reliably Roadworthy Ensure the safety and punctuality of your employees by keeping your vehicle fleet in top shape. Check headlights, rear and brake lights, tyre tread, and windshield wipers. Protect Our Pedestrians Promote pedestrian safety by encouraging your staff to wear bright reflective clothing and to drive with caution on the roads. Report and Respond Take action when needed. Report instances of flooding or blocked drains through www.capetown.gov.za/servicerequests or the Call Centre on 0860 103 089. Power outages can be reported via SMS to 31220 or email power@capetown.gov.za. In case of emergencies, dial 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 from a cell phone to reach the Public Emergency Communication Centre.
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Road safety 101: Stay Egg-xtra safe on the roads this Easter

As we approach the Easter weekend many families are looking forward to much needed time spent bonding over Easter egg hunts and delicious lunches. However, as we all travel to our destinations, the days leading up to Easter weekend see many more motorists driving further in the first rains of our wet season.

As we set off in these conditions, we urge all motorists to take extreme caution and increase their awareness of the common causes of accidents and other road safety pointers for drivers and pedestrians.

Here are our top tips for travelling safely this Easter weekend

road safety
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Climate action, Cape Town and you – living a more sustainable life

While Spring makes us think “green”, it’s not all spring flowers and baby birds that are in the air. Climate change and its proactive counterpart, Climate Action, is on the world’s collective consciousness with COP26 beginning on 31 October in Glasgow, culminating in this year’s Climate Action Day on 4 November and millions of people across the world who will be out marching for climate justice on Saturday 6 November. Last month Global Day of Climate Action on 25 September, held by Fridays for Future, saw 3500 towns and cities get involved, and this month is also Youth Climate Action Day on 23 October.

But let’s take a step back…

What is Climate Change?

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Illegal dumping: how you can play your part

Illegal Dumping WID

It costs the City R350-million every year to clean up illegal dumping. Cleaning up illegally dumped waste is about 20 times more expensive than collecting it from individual wheelie bins, as specialised equipment, including front-end loaders, must be hired to remove the waste. That’s money that could be better used in beautifying and upgrading our shared, public spaces  –  rather than maintaining the status quo.

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How easy is it really to work from home?

work from home WID

According to Remote Working in South Africa 2020, a study conducted among 400 enterprises by World Wide Worx for Cisco, the shift to remote working has led to improved productivity for 29% of organisations.

Many employees have discovered numerous advantages from working at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, but that does not mean we should ignore the challenges. 

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Heritage Day in communication and tourism

Heritage in South Africa: embracing differences in culture and visit some of our heritage sites for Tourism month

 

Heritage and tourism and communication

Heritage is something quite personal and changes from person to person. 

It is something that we as South Africans particularly find important to recognise because of the diversity of our people, identified in the formative years of our Democracy by Nelson Mandela and his new government.

In his address marking Heritage Day 1996, the late former State President Nelson Mandela said: “When our first democratically elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation.”

 Heritage Day is a day to remember and celebrate all the various South African cultures and their unique heritage. When people talk about South African heritage, they might be referring to anything from famous stretches of coastline in Kwazulu-Natal, to shweshwe fabric or veldskoen, to Bunny Chow, Bobotie, boerewors and beyond. Prior to 1995 Heritage Day was in fact called Shaka Day in commemoration of the Zulu King, while in 2005 a campaign sought to brand the day as National Braai Day with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu accepting his role of patron of South Africa’s braai day in 2007.

Honouring the diversity of our country’s people and recognising our differences and richness in all respective cultures is at the heart of South Africa’s beautiful uniqueness.

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Plastic Free July 2020

Plastic Free July

This month we are going plastic free!

Plastic Free July is a call to everyone to join us in saying “No, thank you!” to single-use plastic shopping bags, takeaway cups, drinking straws and other items that are contributing to the pollution crisis currently plaguing our oceans.

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Ways to keep track of your finances during this pandemic

Ways to keep track of your finances during this pandemic

Right now, spending habits are changing, for better or worse. With unemployment at an all-time high and many people working from home, your budget could be totally different from the usual. 

Staying on top of your personal finances can be challenging, tedious and even discouraging, but for most people this process is a necessary evil. Spending more than you earn is a sure way to bury yourself in debt, and not being careful about precisely where your money is going can leave you struggling to pay for necessities like groceries. Fortunately, learning how to keep track of your personal finances is not difficult – but it does require some time and a fair amount of discipline.

Here are a few tips to help keep your money matters in order.

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