ATTACKS ON EMERGENCY STAFF MUST END
DURING the course of the year, close to 100 emergency service workers across the country have been attacked in the line of duty by criminals. The brazen thugs appear to have breached new levels of disregard for human life.
The grounding values of our Bill of Rights, enshrined in our Constitution, are non-derogable rights, which include the right to life, alongside the right to be free from torture and other inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. Attacks on emergency personnel are an attack on the Constitution and a violation of the rights of both the workers and those in need of medical attention.
Society must express outrage at these despicable acts that cheapen human life and place the lives of those who work tirelessly to save life and limb in harm’s way. It can never be that in a free and democratic society, emergency service workers are treated worse than in a war zone. In areas where there is armed conflict, the warring parties appreciate the important role emergency service workers play, and strictly abide by the rules of engagement encoded in the Geneva Convention.
It is time we turned the tables on criminals and take back our streets and our neighbourhoods. Our liberation Struggle was never about breaking the bondages of apartheid only to replace apartheid masters with crime as the new master to perpetuate the subjugation of people.
The ANC has been unequivocal in its commitment to uproot the cancer of crime in society and ensure all citizens enjoy the rights enshrined in the Constitution. We have no doubt that this commitment will translate into tangible action that ups the ante in the war on crime.
While the 2018 crime statistics recorded a marginal drop in contact crimes, the number remains unacceptably high. A social pact between government and civil society must empower communities to support law enforcement agencies to nip the cancer of crime against emergency service workers in the bud. More often than not, perpetrators of these heinous crimes are known members of communities.
If communities choose to be complicit in these crimes by either turning a blind eye or plead ignorance instead of reporting to the police, then we are fighting a losing battle. It is easy for community members to turn a blind eye when crime is being committed under the pretext that it is not their business. Yet, tomorrow they themselves, or their loved ones, may be victims of the same crime.
Communities must stand up and proclaim “Not in our name.” President Ramaphosa has made a clarion call to each citizen to rise to the occasion and accept the call to play their part in building a better society. The #ThumaMina campaign is about every individual making a tangible contribution towards the realisation of a better life for all.
A democracy where citizens live in fear for their lives because criminals rule the day is hollow and meaningless. The rule of law must prevail and those who continue to engage in acts of criminality must face the full might of the law.
Criminals who attack emergency service workers in the line of duty must be dealt with harshly and the book thrown at them. Attacking an emergency service worker in the line of duty should be treated no less seriously as attacking a police officer.
Let us mobilise communities to work with law enforcement authorities to arrest the spread of this cancer, and ensure that those who continue to perpetrate these acts rot behind bars.
The calls to arm emergency workers on duty does nothing to solve this intractable situation, but merely adds fuel to an already raging fire. The ANC has never supported the proliferation of dangerous weapons under the pretext of fighting crime. What will follow next? Arming teachers at school? We think not.