Pretoria - The outbreak of violence has resulted in the Gauteng Emergency Services working under dire conditions.
It had to make use of its armoured ambulance, called Mfezi, this week in responding to calls to transfer patients to hospitals.
The entity said it was pleading with communities to stop attacks on paramedics and emergency vehicles so that they could render services to those in need.
While responding to high volumes of distress calls in various parts of the province, they had to face road closures and the barricading of roads.
The emergency services said all this made it difficult for paramedics and vehicles to enter communities and respond to calls.
They gave the assurance that their teams were on the ground responding to calls as best as they could, but warned of delays due to road closures and attacks on emergency vehicles.
The Gauteng Provincial Government confirmed that medical service teams were experiencing difficulty in responding to distress calls in communities due to limited access.
Things seemed a bit easier in Tshwane, according to Emergency Management Services spokesperson Charles Mabaso.
He said staff had not been hampered in their work.
“Our services have not been hampered by road closures and attacks during this time,” he said.
According to Mabaso, the Tshwane Emergency Services was called to assist with violence in Mamelodi on Monday night, but all went smoothly.
He assured residents that they remained on high alert to attend to any incidents.
Meanwhile, the City of Tshwane has warned residents about service delivery delays due to disruptions taking place in some areas within the metro.
Basic services such as attending to power failures, sewers, water meters, pipe leakages and waste collection had already been compromised in some instances, due to the ongoing unrest actions, it said.
The City said that where there was a threat to rendering a municipal service, staff and contracted entities would have to be withdrawn as a precautionary measure.
Customers are urged to use the SMS lines – 44676 and 082 612 0333 – to report power failure complaints.
Pretoria News