Joza residents tried in vain to save the life of a man stabbed during initiation homecoming celebrations last weekend. Adding to their distress is their belief that paramedics and the police were slow to help.
Joza residents tried in vain to save the life of a man stabbed during initiation homecoming celebrations last weekend. Adding to their distress is their belief that paramedics and the police were slow to help.
Police said Siyabulela Mbenenge, 36, had been involved in a fight with another man on Saturday. When the police arrived, he was dead, having been stabbed in the chest.
According to one of the people who attended the celebrations, however, the 36-year-old man's life could have been saved if the ambulance had arrived promptly.
Extension 9 resident and Community Policing Forum member Nokuzola Namba told Grocott's Mail that it was hours before an ambulance arrived.
We called the ambulance on numerous occasions while he was still alive and I even called them on their direct line until my airtime was finished, said Namba. She said they had told the paramedics it was an emergency.
When the ambulance arrived, paramedics certified Mbenenge dead.
My complaint is that if the ambulance had arrived on time his life would have been saved. They don't respect the community, Namba said.
Namba said even getting the police to come had been difficult. We tried to call the police but they did not come and we decided to go to the police station ourselves, she said.
Namba said as they arrived at the police station, officers in a van told them that a police van had just left to attend to the scene.
When we returned the van had still not arrived. I called Sergeant Nomana and the police eventually arrived at about 8pm, Namba said.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Luvuyo Mjekula said that on Saturday around 7.45pm the police received a complaint about a murder and proceeded to Jamela Street, in Tata location. He said they found a 36-year-old man, lying on his back, covered with a blanket.
A man on the scene told the police that the deceased was involved in a fight with another man, Mjekula told Grocott's Mail. Mbenenge was stabbed in the chest. No arrests have been made.
Responding to claims that the paramedics had taken too long to arrive, local Nehawu shop steward Mbuleli Gongqa said the ambulance services were fully operational on the day of the incident and he couldn't speculate on why the service had been slow on that day, if that were the case.
He admitted that there were still ambulance workers unhappy after the recent strike.
The department has not committed fully to the promises it made and this has caused problems because people do not want to work overtime any more, Gongqa said.
He said they four ambulances serve Grahamstown, but sometimes only two ambulances might be available. He said the same ambulances sometimes had to transfer patients to other towns and cope with motor vehicle accidents.
