Paramedics navigate danger in red zones

THE call came in just after 7pm as the paramedics began the night shift: a man had been stabbed in the head with a glass bottle and was bleeding heavily.

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The medical crew and their ambulance from Cape Town’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) were only minutes away. But they could not respond until they had an armed police escort.

The Cape Flats, low-lying townships outside Cape Town, are hotspots for murder and gang violence in a country already plagued by one of the highest crime rates in the world.

The sprawling area of Philippi, where the wounded man lay bleeding in a shack, is among the most dangerous. It is one of nine Red Zones in Cape Town where the EMS refuses to allow its medical crews to move without security cover.

“If it was up to me, I would go straight there,” said paramedic Mawethu Ntintini, 52, pacing the sidewalk outside the Philippi police station in his green reflective uniform.

“But we have to go through the police.”

Waiting inside the ambulance was Ntintini’s partner, Ntombikayisi Joko, who has narrowly escaped ambush while on duty and was robbed in 2021 while waiting for directions to a call-out.

“Every time I’m going out, I have to pray,” the 42-year-old mother told AFP.

“If we were going there by ourselves, we would be robbed,” Ntintini admitted.