Pretoria - Following careful consultation with family and for safety reasons, Bestcare Ambulance Services and Ambu-Link will be shutting their doors after 21 years of operation.
Family spokesperson Xander Loubser said the decision was taken after two ambulances were petrol-bombed on Friday night. He said the news of the petrol-bomb led to his father having a heart attack.
“We've tried to keep this silent because I didn't want the people responsible for this act of terror to think they achieved victory,” Loubser said.
He said his father was still in hospital, and that after saving lives for many years, the family would rather save their own lives this time around, hence the decision to close down.
Without giving away too much and possibly jeopardising any leads, Loubser said he met with detectives yesterday and handed over the footage of the petrol bombing.
On who could be behind this, Loubser said: “At this point it doesn’t matter, we just need our family to be safe and have decided to move to Cape Town,” he said with a trembling voice.
“My heart breaks to think that people would go as far as petrol-bombing us as an ambulance service,” he said.
Two ambulances were burnt and infrastructure damaged after two men hurled petrol bombs into their premises at Bestcare Ambulance Service and Ambu-Link in Mountain View at around 8pm on Friday night.
“Two people threw what appeared to be home-made petrol bombs into our premises and onto our emergency vehicles and ran off. The perpetrators were travelling in a white Renault Clio,” he said.
Loubser said the white vehicle had been spotted in the area travelling along Van Rensburg Street. It then made a U-turn after the occupants had thrown the petrol bomb.
“Three minutes later, it was seen on Denyssen Avenue, travelling west with its hazard lights on.”
Pretoria News