Is South Africa’s 10111 A Death Trap?
By Mfene ka Ngelengele
Have you been in a life-threatening situation and you dialed South Africa’s police emergency number 10111? Did you get an immediate response? This is my story of what happened to us.
We got into a life-threatening situation whereby a 20-year-old man hit us with a brick and a bottle. My cousin was hit by the brick and the bottle. He suffered serious lacerations from the bottle and excruciating bodily harm from the brick that hit him below the belt. He dropped to the ground as a result and bled.
I rushed for a phone and dialed 10111. I couldn’t get through the first time but the second time around we spoke to someone. We gave the address, description of the life threatening situation and the urgency of the matter. The police officer promised to dispatch police to the situation.
More than 20 minutes passed and no police vehicle materialized. We called again and we had to give the address and the description of the life-threatening situation. Police vehicle was promised to be dispatched but no police vehicle was dispatched. We called the third time and spoke to a lady called Mia. She looked on the computer and found there was no record of our previous 10111 call. We lodged the new call with her and she promised that the police were being dispatched. Fifteen minutes later, no police had been dispatched. We called and spoke to a Ms. Mia to inquire if the police were coming to the scene and she said yes with a voice of irritation.
Fifteen minutes later, there was no police vehicle and in the meanwhile the situation is escalating. We called again 40 minutes later and spoke to a Mr. Pule whom we had to give the details afresh as if we had never called about this matter. He suggested that the area was too busy but agreed to take the call and dispatch the police to assist us. We called 30 minutes later and he confirmed that the police were on their way to assist us but no police showed up. The incident started around midnight and the time now is 4am and no police has materialized.
10111 Not A Free Call From Cell Phone
We ran out of airtime and couldn’t get our call through to the emergency. We had to purchase extra airtime in order to call 10111. We also discovered the hard way that calling 10111 on your cell phone is not free or cheap. You must have airtime in order to make a 10111 call.
In the meanwhile the assailant threatened to kill us all by shooting. We waited in vain for the police. This must explain why some communities take the law into their hands and solve the problems theremselves because they have the harsh experience of calling 10111 and no one showing up to assist you.
Is Calling 10111 in South Africa a Worthless Exercise?
Does this then mean that calling and pinning your hopes on 10111 is a false hope and as such a death trap? Do you have to get hurt or killed before the police are dispatched to the scene. What are your thoughts on this? In this case no police showed up! The South African Police Services are very professional and among the best on the planet but this situation is very disappointing and does not confirm our trust in 10111. If you are a police officer, politician or government officer reading this please share your thoughts and assist us in anyway you can.
I attended an emergency police and emergency services orientation whereby they teach people about emergency services and they educated us about the use of emergency but when we called the emergency on this violent situation there was no police vehicle that showed up and that means if we didn’t manage to handle the situation the best way we knew how then we would have ended up like dead.
We called again to 10111 and was just getting disconnected. We then called 10177 and asked to be put through to a police station and we were told that it was not possible. The lady then put us through to the 10111 and we spoke to a lady whom we gave the details afresh. We asked her name and she said she was Mia. We then said we had spoken to her before and lodged a police emergency call but she said she never spoke to us. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you been in a life-threatening situation and you dialed South Africa’s police emergency number 10111? Did you get an immediate response? This is my story of what happened to us.
We got into a life-threatening situation whereby a 20-year-old man hit us with a brick and a bottle. My cousin was hit by the brick and the bottle. He suffered serious lacerations from the bottle and excruciating bodily harm from the brick that hit him below the belt. He dropped to the ground as a result and bled.
I rushed for a phone and dialed 10111. I couldn’t get through the first time but the second time around we spoke to someone. We gave the address, description of the life threatening situation and the urgency of the matter. The police officer promised to dispatch police to the situation.
More than 20 minutes passed and no police vehicle materialized. We called again and we had to give the address and the description of the life-threatening situation. Police vehicle was promised to be dispatched but no police vehicle was dispatched. We called the third time and spoke to a lady called Mia. She looked on the computer and found there was no record of our previous 10111 call. We lodged the new call with her and she promised that the police were being dispatched. Fifteen minutes later, no police had been dispatched. We called and spoke to a Ms. Mia to inquire if the police were coming to the scene and she said yes with a voice of irritation.
Fifteen minutes later, there was no police vehicle and in the meanwhile the situation is escalating. We called again 40 minutes later and spoke to a Mr. Pule whom we had to give the details afresh as if we had never called about this matter. He suggested that the area was too busy but agreed to take the call and dispatch the police to assist us. We called 30 minutes later and he confirmed that the police were on their way to assist us but no police showed up. The incident started around midnight and the time now is 4am and no police has materialized.
10111 Not A Free Call From Cell Phone
We ran out of airtime and couldn’t get our call through to the emergency. We had to purchase extra airtime in order to call 10111. We also discovered the hard way that calling 10111 on your cell phone is not free or cheap. You must have airtime in order to make a 10111 call.
In the meanwhile the assailant threatened to kill us all by shooting. We waited in vain for the police. This must explain why some communities take the law into their hands and solve the problems theremselves because they have the harsh experience of calling 10111 and no one showing up to assist you.
Is Calling 10111 in South Africa a Worthless Exercise?
Does this then mean that calling and pinning your hopes on 10111 is a false hope and as such a death trap? Do you have to get hurt or killed before the police are dispatched to the scene. What are your thoughts on this? In this case no police showed up! The South African Police Services are very professional and among the best on the planet but this situation is very disappointing and does not confirm our trust in 10111. If you are a police officer, politician or government officer reading this please share your thoughts and assist us in anyway you can.
I attended an emergency police and emergency services orientation whereby they teach people about emergency services and they educated us about the use of emergency but when we called the emergency on this violent situation there was no police vehicle that showed up and that means if we didn’t manage to handle the situation the best way we knew how then we would have ended up like dead.
We called again to 10111 and was just getting disconnected. We then called 10177 and asked to be put through to a police station and we were told that it was not possible. The lady then put us through to the 10111 and we spoke to a lady whom we gave the details afresh. We asked her name and she said she was Mia. We then said we had spoken to her before and lodged a police emergency call but she said she never spoke to us. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Vusi Moloi at
7:11 PM
1 Comments:
This is very shocking hey.....I shudder to think if that were me stuck in that situation and i was really trully depserately in need of rescueing......I think the police should undergo Navy training from the very beginning and they should have that need to honour their oath under any given circumstance. None of the saps is too laid back and their should get a compulsary 3 days training in their work week and this must be standard in their work routine......they dnt workout and they have top notch fast cars they can rush to us in but they still wnt come.
Action must be taken!!! someone must do something!!!!
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