Paramedics protest in Mfuleni, following attacks
“We are now working closer with the police and the community to make sure that the emergency services workers are protected at all costs”
Paramedics marched through the streets of Mfuleni on Saturday to raise about attacks on them. Photo: Phumeza Halonisi
A group of paramedics marched through the streets of Mfuleni on Saturday to protest against attacks on them. In March, two female Emergency Medical Services workers were reportedly robbed at gunpoint and beaten while responding to an emergency in Extension 4.
Paramedic Athenkosi Sobanda said, “The aim for this peaceful demonstration is to raise awareness in the community of Mfuleni about these attacks and also to stand in solidarity with our colleagues.”
He said his colleagues are still traumatised despite receiving counselling.
“They are here with us today, but they are scared to talk about what happened that night, because it is like reliving the whole incident,” he said.
Sobanda said waiting for police escorts can take hours and can put the life of the person in need of medical attention at risk. He hoped that by building a relationship with the community, paramedics won’t have to wait for an escort.
The EMS staff were joined by the Mfuleni community policing forum (CPF), the neighbourhood watch, and community members.
Mfuleni CPF spokesperson Mvano Magula said, “We will not tolerate these attacks anymore. We are now working closer with the police and the community to make sure that the emergency services workers are protected at all costs. The message is clear, and these criminals have seen us and heard us as we were going around the streets.”
Support independent journalism
Donate using Payfast
Don't miss out on the latest news
We respect your privacy, and promise we won't spam you.
Next: Troubling questions as minister gives Ithuba another year to run lottery
Previous: 2,000 households in Katlehong without electricity and clean toilets
© 2025 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.