Spare a thought for these heroes

Earlier this week, a frustrated member of an ambulance crew in Cape Town tweeted about the angry attitudes towards him and his colleagues as they attempted to make their way through badly snarled-up traffic to an emergency.

That reaction from the broader population, however, pales into insignificance when considering the daily reality of the dangerous lives of paramedics and emergency service personnel, who are often targets of criminality.

Emergency workers have been attacked, raped and even killed in the course of attempting to carry out their duties – duties which no sane citizen should have to be reminded, include assisting those in desperate need.

In some cases, municipal emergency services will not respond to calls from certain areas at certain times of day.

All that is a stinging indictment of the increasingly barbarous nature of society. Even in war zones, for centuries, ambulance and emergency personnel have been guaranteed safe access.

But in South Africa today, these angels of mercy are seen by some as sitting ducks to be preyed upon.

This sort of conduct shames the nation. Those who attack an emergency worker in the course of their duty should be locked up and the key thrown away.

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