Please find photos of the abandoned ambulances here, here and here
The DA in the City of Ekurhuleni has learnt that R47 million worth of ambulances sit and gather dust, whilst residents suffer under the brunt of extended response times, and healthcare failures.
The ambulances in question were supposed to be transferred to the Gauteng Provincial Government following the provincialisation of the service by the ANC-led government in 2020. Although the ambulance function was transferred in paper, that is where it stayed. Millions of rands of equipment that were meant to be transferred with the provincial takeover have been left to rot for over 3 years in Ekurhuleni Fire Stations.
In Questions posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) Council to the so-called ‘People’s Coalition Government’ led by the EFF, it was indicated that there are 75 ambulances with a market value of R620 900, 00 each. This amounts to a massive R47 million (R46, 567, 500) worth of life-saving assets lying idle and currently not utilised.
These ambulances can be found in the Brakpan, Benoni, Leon Ferreira, Rynfield, Edenvale, and Wadeville Fire Stations.
More worryingly, a report by the DA’s Shadow MEC for Health, Jack Bloom, in August 2023, revealed Ekurhuleni to have the lowest ambulance response time in the Province – it is now incredibly clear why that is the case.
According to the report, emergency ambulances respond to only 56% of calls for Priority 1 patients within 30 minutes in Gauteng’s urban areas, which means unnecessary lives are lost on a daily basis.
According to the MEC, the most dismal response rate is observed in Ekurhuleni, where merely 46% of life-threatening emergency calls receive a response within 30 minutes.
The response rates for the Municipalities in the Province were revealed as follows:
- City of Ekurhuleni – 46%
- City of Johannesburg – 52%
- City of Tshwane – 72%
- Sedibeng District Municipality – 62%
- West Rand District Municipality – 63%
The international standard is 80% of Priority 1 calls within 15 minutes, but the Gauteng Health Department no longer measures response times to this standard. It is clear why.
Within the ambit of provincial government, the centralised control center lacks the local knowledge of Ekurhuleni communities, which creates delays in emergency response, which could mean the difference between life and death for the City’s residents.
And now, less than 3 years after the function has been transferred, our worst fears have been realised.
Residents, especially those residing in township areas, have had to withstand the worst of an ambulance service that is now more unresponsive than ever. Reports of residents having to use their private cars to transport the sick and injured to hospitals and clinics after waiting between three or four hours for an ambulance are commonplace.
The DA is once again calling on the Gauteng Province to devolve the ambulance services back to Ekurhuleni. It is clear, that as with other functions, government is hellbent on centralising, that they are incapable of looking after the people of Ekurhuleni, much less South Africa at large.