The South African National Blood Services says blood stock in South Africa is critically low with just enough units to last for the next 36 hours.
SANBS spokesperson Sifiso Khoza says they are constantly faced with a deficit in blood stock.
He says they require an average of three-thousand units of blood to treat thousands of patients daily.
Khoza says the problem is that not enough people are donating blood.
“We only have enough units to last us for the next 36 hours which means that should not enough donors come forward a few lives are at immediate risk. As we approach the festive season people have got the misconception that they don’t have enough time at their disposal meanwhile when you are on holiday that’s when you have more time at your disposal. So we are in most places we are also in most shopping centres and shopping malls and we’re kindly appealing to everyone to please come forward and give us 20 minutes of their time.”
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