City temporarily suspends emergency services to Cosmo City
COSMO CITY – Emergency Management Services were forced to temporarily suspend services to Cosmo City and Zandpruit until proper protection has been put into place.
After responding City emergency services were attacked by a mob on the morning of 29 June, the City’s Emergency Management Services were forced to temporarily suspend services to Cosmo City and Zandpruit until proper protection has been put into place.
According to Honeydew Police spokesperson Captain Balan Muthan, an individual was stabbed during an incident of mob justice after the community had accused him of being a murderer.
When paramedics came in to assist, the community was up in arms as they refused to let them help the man, and damaged the paramedic’s vehicle.
Muthan said, “The paramedics who responded were not assaulted physically and were able to attend to the injured person. The rear window of the emergency vehicle was damaged by the mob.”
City of Johannesburg EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi confirmed on 29 June that management was forced to withdraw ambulance services until further notice after the attack.
Mulaudzi said, “The ambulance services are on hold for now until we can get a proper plan in place to ensure that medical response vehicles can be protected.”
MMC for Public Safety Michael Sun said, “Emergency services to Cosmo City have not been suspended entirely, vehicles will still respond so long as there is back-up from the JMPD to ensure emergency staff are safe. This, unfortunately, will result in longer response time to emergency scenes.
“We also have to evaluate each emergency call from troublesome areas to ensure that it is not safe, and if it is real, then back-up needs to be provided to escort emergency services in security hotspots. We can’t not respond to emergencies, but a plan has been put in place to ensure emergency staff remain safe during these times.”
Mulaudzi added that the situation regarding the safety of their paramedics is not good. “Recently, we have seen an escalation in the number of incidents of assaults and damage to our property. These incidents create a lot of fear among emergency personnel. It is hard to tell during an emergency if it is a real call or a call where you won’t be able to come back safe… These incidents are reported all over the country.
“When we respond to emergencies, we don’t discriminate and whoever needs help on the scene. In this case, we were blamed by the community for helping somebody who had committed a crime and we were attacked.
“When we have new and high-quality resources, our community needs to look after them. Please look after our resources and protect us when we are rendering this very important social service.”
Muthan added, “It is a sad situation when an emergency vehicle can’t respond to help a community member of Cosmo or Zandspruit due to fear of being assaulted.”
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Joburg EMS withdraws services in Cosmo City until further notice following crew attacks
