IN PICS & VIDEO: City of Joburg now has 101 ambulances

The city of Johannesburg has received 42 newly acquired ambulances in a handover that took place at the Ivory Park fire station on Thursday.

Mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba said that all 42 ambulances would be distributed equally within the city, explaining that the ambulances were part of the Emergency Management Service fleet replacement programme.

The newest additions to the fleet bring the total number of ambulances available to 101.

Picture: Nigel Sibanda

The call for more ambulances is part of what has been dubbed as poor service delivery in most parts of the country.

The community of Ivory Park has expressed their relief and gratitude at the arrival of the new ambulances. However, the availability of ambulances doesn’t put the community at rest, as they fear that their past problems might not be solved.

Video by Carlos Muchave

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Promise Lebaya, a community member, said that the problems they faced with the ambulances were the late arrivals, and she hoped that with more ambulances, residents would receive reliable service delivery, unlike what they had been subjected to in the past.

Another community member, Winnie Ndhlamini, said that she had lost her mother in 2013 because of the late arrival of an ambulance. She said that typically, when you request an ambulance, your call is put on hold, or you are told to wait .

Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Community members did question why the ambulances had to be shared with neighbouring towns such as Cosmo City, which is an hour away from Ivory Park, citing fears that sharing ambulances could result in a shortage once again.

Residents also suggested that the ambulances ensure that they have petrol at all times, saying that ambulances are often late because they run out of fuel. This goes for fire engines as well, said resident Lucia Matoso.

Picture: Nigel Sibanda

In an incident that occurred recently, the community had to put out a fire that claimed five homes on their own as the fire engines were out of petrol.

Platoon Commander Gift Mokoena tackled the issue of paramedic safety, touching on an incident that occurred in KZN where an ambulance was called to attend an “emergency”, and paramedics were subsequently robbed and shot as it was a fake call.

Mokoena said that in future, ambulances would be escorted by SAPS or the JMPD.

Mashaba took the opportunity to blame over-crowding at South African hospitals on the number of illegal immigrants that were “flooding the country”.

“South Africa cannot be expected to be a country of open borders”, he said.

He said that the economy in the country was not fit enough to accommodate foreign nationals, saying that this was having a negative impact on emergency services and health facilities.

He appealed to the new minister of home affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, to step in and deal with the matter of illegal immigrants urgently.

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