The Centrum Guardians was created to honour and give South African emergency services personnel the respect that they deserve for their stories of courage that often go unrecognised and unrewarded.
The first finalist from Ekurhuleni is Cynthia Maqungu, a reservist Fire Fighter for Ekurhuleni Emergency Services who saved three people from a burning shack at Ramaphosa Informal Settlement, where she also lives.
As a reservist Fire Fighter who started as a volunteer, Maqungu works with the Public Information, Education and Relations (PIER) group who are trained to assist in informal settlement emergencies.
She used this opportunity to educate her community on fire safety as well as the importance of having sand or water readily available in their homes in the event of a fire.
The second finalist is Michael Callow, an Advanced Life Support (ALS) Paramedic, has had 24 years of service in the Ekurhuleni Emergency Services.
He was active in saving the lives of an innocent bystander and two Metro Police Officers, one who was shot three times and the other 12 times during one of the bloodiest shootouts in the city’s history.
The two EMPD officers who were shot on that fateful day were undercover in a joint operation with the National Crime Intelligence and the SAPS K9 Units.
The City of Ekurhuleni is proud of these nominations and encourages its residents to vote for the nominated finalists who put their own lives at risk to save the lives of their fellow Ekurhuleni residents.
Watch their stories (Bulletproof and Shack Fire 101) as well as the other finalists’ stories and vote for your favourite finalist by clicking on the name that appears above the video. Voting is now open and closes at midday on August 20 2015.
The winner of the competition will walk away with a cash prize and the winner’s base station will also receive prize money that will go towards enhancing their training so they can successfully continue saving lives.
