The Johannesburg Emergency Management Services says residents of Cosmo City, north of Johannesburg will be required to receive ambulance services outside the area for now – until arrangements can be made to ensure the safety of emergency personnel.
Ambulance services in the area were suspended over the weekend after three crew members were attacked and their vehicle vandalised while attending to an assault incident.
EMS Spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, says there will be a delay in responses to the area to first allow for emergency personnel to take precautionary measures.
He has appealed to the public to refrain from attacking paramedics, as they provide a vital service to the community…
“A dead paramedic cannot save lives, so it is very important that we guarantee the safety of paramedics before we attempt to respond to these emergencies. In terms of the services, what we have arranged is that the residents of Cosmo City will have to receive services outside of Cosmo City – so whoever will use our services will have to wait for the ambulance outside Cosmo City because we cannot do our normal door to door services that we do under normal circumstances. If our residents in the area can guarantee our safety we should be able to go back to render services. We are there, but we cannot take a chance while we know that we are in danger.”
@CityofJoburgEMS Management was forced to withdraw Ambulance Services until further notice to the Community of Cosmo City this morning following another attack to Ambulance Crews who were attending to an Assault case in the area @CityofJoburgZA @CoJPublicSafety pic.twitter.com/iFcVf0F40B
— Cojems Spokesperson (@RobertMulaudzi) June 29, 2019
Help protect our #paramedics #firefighters, we urge @CityofJoburgZA residents to assist us in securing the safety of our staff. If you have any information on the perpetrators call @SAPoliceService on 10111 https://t.co/MjRiGlKixf
— City of Joburg EMS (@CityofJoburgEMS) June 27, 2019
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