‘It isn’t safe’: South African first responders attacked while saving lives

“I was looking down to help the patient [when] I saw someone come into the room. I saw the boots, and when I looked up I was staring into a gun.”

It’s a warm October night in Meyerton, south of Johannesburg, and Sonia*, a senior paramedic working for a private ambulance service, is recounting a particularly harrowing day at work in South Africa’s crime-ridden economic capital. She is in her early 40s and does not want to be identified to protect her privacy.

“The guy said to me: “Keep quiet, keep quiet. Go down!” At first Sonia briefly thought he might be a security guard because the emergency call-out was in a wealthy suburban area.

“But then I realised they are busy robbing us and the house. I think they followed us.”

Sonia’s patient, who was suffering from a brain embolism, started screaming. But the gunmen pushed them all to the ground. “I’m thinking ‘What am I going to do?’ Because it’s in me to help a person,” Sonia recounts.

“He had a gun behind me and I’m thinking I must just do what he tells or I’m gonna die,” she continues. Her assailant took her jewellery while screaming threats of: “We’ll shoot you in the stomach! We’ll shoot you in the stomach!”