Cape Town firefighters were stoned by disruptive communities in three separate incidents over the weekend, while they were attending to fires in the area.
The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith called the attacks senseless and dangerous.
“After a period of relative calm, it now appears that our firefighters are once more the target of senseless and dangerous attacks, often from the very people they are trained and deployed to help.
“One can’t be sure what the motivation is, but I want to reiterate to the public that attacking our emergency services staff is not the answer. In fact, all that will happen is that staff will be forced to wait for an enforcement escort before responding, which will slow down reaction times and put lives and property at unnecessary risk,” he said.
- Just before 09:00 on Saturday, 2 October, firefighters from Gugulethu withdrew from the scene of a motor vehicle accident on Oliver Tambo Avenue in Manenberg, when the crowd became volatile and stoned their vehicle, damaging the windscreen and side passenger window
- The second incident occurred just after 23:00 on Saturday evening, when pedestrians stoned a fire vehicle from Wynberg close to the Gugulethu Fire station. Again, the windscreen and side passenger window were damaged
- Little more than an hour later, at 00:41, firefighters responded to informal structures alight in Isikhova street in Mfuleni. Shortly after arriving on scene, the crew was stoned by community members.
In other Safety and Security Directorate interventions, the enforcement services made 207 arrests in the past week and issued 61 963 fines for various transgressions.
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