Emergency services hit by debts

Ekurhuleni’s Emergency services went back to the dark ages this week due to the non-payment of a service provider.

This left the Metro’s 11 million residents with a much less effective emergency service.

The metro’s state-of- the-art emergency call centre was made all but obsolete, forcing call-centre operators to take calls, write down the details on paper and then attempt, by phone, to contact ambulance, fire and metro police distribution centres to relay the information.

According to insiders this was not only frustrating, but caused huge delays and also opened up the system to human error and faulty communication.

The backbone of the now useless system is a virtual private network rented from Telkom.

The system, if working, allows operators to instantly relay vital information to the relevant departments even while the caller is on the line.

Due to the life-saving function of the call centre, Telkom tried to be lenient for several months, but the Metro’s ICT department which is responsible for paying the bill still failed to comply.

According to Telkom, contact was made with the office of the city manager and an assurance was given that the bills would be paid by Friday last week.

No payment was made on the account, which topped R100 000 outstanding, and Telkom “had no choice” but to cut the service late on Tuesday afternoon.

Read more on The Citizen