An EMS paramedic has taken to social media to appeal for help after an ambulance was broken into and ransacked.
Valuable equipment and the personal belongings of two staff members were stolen from the vehicle in Factreton on Tuesday.
Nicholas Sales says without the equipment, the ambulance is useless to the public.
This is the second attack on emergency workers in a week after two ambulance workers were attacked while responding to a call in Tafelsig on Saturday evening.
After loading a seemingly sick woman into the back of the ambulance, her family attacked paramedics out of the blue.
Charges of assault were laid with police.
Writing on Facebook, Sales said on Tuesday, while out on a call in Vliegtuig Avenue in Kensington, Ambulance 20 of the Metro Emergency Medical Service was broken into.
A green EMS jumper bag, a suction unit in a grey box and one of the workers’ bags were stolen.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana confirmed a case of theft has been opened for investigation.
“No arrest has been made at this stage,” she says.
Sales asked people to piemp the perpetrators to police.
“I am calling upon all communities, especially the Kensington community, to help us find these perpetrators as well as the equipment so we can get the ambulance back on the road,” he says.
Western Cape MEC Nomafrench Mbombo’s spokesperson, Zimkitha Mqutheni, agreed and called on police to clamp down on crime: “These attacks are not our problem as the health department, but a social problem that needs a social response.”
Mbombo will be announcing plans on additional safety interventions for staff in “Red Zones” – where ambulances are accompanied into the areas deemed high risk.
Cheslyn Steenberg, secretary of the Kensington Community Policing Forum, says the problem needs to be addressed immediately.
Steenberg said: “We do not want Kensington to be declared as a red zone area, as it would have dire consequences for residents.”
Anyone with information should contact Detective Warrant Officer Petrus Smart on 021 594 7033.