When four kilometres of copper cable was stolen, it took out the multimillion-rand state-of-the-art call centre for the Eastern Cape Department of Health’s emergency medical services, forcing operators in Makhanda to dispatch ambulances in Gqeberha, Kariega and Dispatch.

The system has now been down for 12 days.

Staff at the police 10111 call centre, and call centre agents 100km away in Makhanda, are dispatching ambulances in Nelson Mandela Bay through a push-to-talk system, similar to a two-way radio, as the official EMS call centre system has been offline with no repair date in sight.

The health department confirmed that the extended outage was caused by cable theft in the Zwide area, where the metro’s state-of-the-art EMS headquarters is located.

Yet, up to now, the situation has not been explained to Nelson Mandela Bay residents.

This is the latest crisis to hit the service which has struggled in recent weeks due to a refusal by staff to work overtime and a growing backlog of ambulances that need servicing. While the overtime crisis now seems to have been solved, call centre staff on Tuesday found themselves offline for the 11th day.

‘Shocking failure of government’

“Imagine lying bleeding on the side of the road, or being in labour and needing an ambulance, and your calls for help go unanswered. This is a shocking failure of government,” said Democratic Alliance spokesperson on health Jane Cowley on Tuesday.

“I have written to the Eastern Cape Health MEC, Nomakhosazana Meth, to try to establish the reasons for this service delivery collapse and to inquire as to the immediate steps the department will take to rectify this dire situation,” she said.

Health department spokesperson MK Ndamase said the telephone lines at the EMS Nelson Mandela Bay metro went down on Saturday, 17 September and had not yet been fixed. 

“The Telkom technicians were called and they arrived on site and tested everything in the server room. According to their report, the interruption was due to the theft of a four-kilometre cable that runs from the base to the exchange.”

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Due to heavy rains, Telkom has been unable to locate the exact area in which the theft occurred, but replacement cables have been ordered.

Ndamase confirmed that ambulances were now dispatched by the police 10111 call centre, where an EMS member had temporarily been placed.

He said people should dial 112 and ask for the Makhanda EMS control centre to access ambulances.

“The staff in that control room will relay their request to the ambulance crew in Gqeberha, from where the ambulance will be dispatched.

“We call on the community to work with police to safeguard infrastructure as the theft of these cables compromises the lives of people who need emergency medical services.

“The department condemns the cable theft in the strongest terms possible. This problem has been a big challenge not only in health facilities but throughout the metro,” Ndamase said.

Surge in vandalism

Earlier this year, in an answer provided to the Eastern Cape legislature, the former MEC for Community Safety and Liason, Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe — who has since been fired from the provincial cabinet — said vandalism of infrastructure had spiked in both provincial metros — Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay. 

In Nelson Mandela Bay, vandalism of government property increased from 138 cases in 2018 to 292 in 2022.

In the nine months between April 2021 and December 2021, 15 cellphone towers were vandalised, 42 cases of vandalism had been opened for damage to railway property, 26 for damage to electrical substations and three for damage to road infrastructure.

In the 2021/2022 financial year, there were 176 arrests for vandalism in the metro, but only 28 successful prosecutions. DM/MC