“You cannot punish the corrupt by punishing those that show up.” That was comments from Ian Cameron, Director of Community Safety at Action Society, after the Paarl Fire Brigade was attacked and assaulted in the line of duty by lawless individuals which resulted in the deadly inferno that claimed one life and destroyed an informal settlement in Paarl on Sunday night. According to a report from the Drakenstein Farm Watch, the team had bricks thrown at them after they stopped at the scene. The team had to call the police to make way for them before they could put the fire out.
“People complain about emergency services in South Africa all the time – that they are not being helped, but in this situation you have a community biting the hand that showed up to help. We condemn the attack on the first responders. Had this emergency team been allowed to do their jobs, a lot of damage, and even the loss of life could very well have been avoided. While we understand communities’ frustration with service delivery issues, we believe that communities also cannot complain if they add to the problem by damaging resources and endangering emergency teams that actually show up,” concluded Cameron.
