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The Democratic Alliance (DA) will not sit idle and watch the Gauteng provincial government violate residents' constitutional rights to health by taking over ambulance services from the City of Ekurhuleni.

The DA opposes the politically driven sudden decision to provincialise the city’s ambulance services and its employees, mainly because there was no prior consultation and the documentation that informed the decision has not been made available to the relevant interested parties.

Although not smoothly operated, the ANC-led City of Ekurhuleni has run the emergency medical service on behalf of the Gauteng provincial government for more than a decade.

In the absence of ambulances, millions of needy residents in Ekurhuleni will have to pay out of their own pockets to hire transport to take sick loved ones to hospital in the case of emergencies.

The DA believes that staff rendering firefighting, rescue and emergency related services should be retained by the city rather than provincial government to ensure that they are closer to residents.

With winter approaching, fires are rampant in informal settlements and the absence of emergency personnel could prove disastrous.

Furthermore, the Ekurhuleni Department of Community Safety has not set up a task team to assess the risk management that will negatively affect the transfer of the equipment, assets and specialised staff. The city purchased immensely specialised equipment worth R108 691 876, 83, and the provincial government has not said a word on how it will compensate the city for the relocation of this equipment.

It is concerning that despite the city having had months to sort out the transfer of the ambulance service, it has done so without taking into consideration the absolute backlash and negative consequences of its actions to communities.

Allowing the provincialising of emergency services in its current state will be nothing short of a disaster.

 

Issued by The DA