In an emergency, please make sure to speak softly and politely…

SUZANNE BELLING

Green, who finds jobs for the unemployed through social media via #Second Chances and hosts the afternoon programme for children on ChaiFM, was horrified at the lack of response and rudeness of some of the emergency services in Gauteng. Police, ambulance and MTN emergency ignored or did not respond to her frantic telephone calls to save a woman’s life. Eventually, she was assisted by Lundi Mhlana, who works for a private security company.

“It was after midnight last week and I was returning to Johannesburg from Boksburg, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but carried on driving. Then, 100 metres further, I realised what I had seen was real. A woman had been pushed out of a moving car, her limp body had tumbled down the embankment and landed in a heap in the emergency lane.”

Green reversed at speed to hear the woman screaming in fear: “He is coming back. He’s coming to kill me!”

Green immediately dialled 10111 (SAPS) to whom she gave the exact location. She asked for police and an ambulance and was told to dial 112, the MTN SA emergency services line.

“For the first one-and-a-half minutes I had to listen to a computer explaining it was a criminal offence to call except in a life or death emergency. I was told to press 1, getting a reminder that if it was a hoax – apparently there are a lot of hoax calls – I could have my cellular services discontinued. Finally, after two minutes, an actual human being came on the line.

“All the time the poor lady was screaming in fear of her life.” Green was put onto another consultant who asked her to hold on. A fourth consultant (Green had been holding on for eight minutes) came on the line, whereby Green started screaming the injured woman could die and the perpetrator (the victim’s husband) could be coming back to finish what he started. Upon which the consultant said: ‘Don’t scream at me’ and put the phone down.

“Yes, the MTN SA emergency line call centre agent put down the phone because I was screaming for help. If you are ever in a life-threatening situation, make sure you speak politely and softly to the inhumane human on the other end of the line, because saying please is much more important than the person’s life you are trying to save.”

With the victim bruised and bleeding and speaking incoherently, Mhlana “an absolute angel” arrived on the scene. Green called 10111 again and they had no record of her previous call.

Mhlana helped the injured woman into Green’s car, and got through to a police captain. Within 30 seconds, fire engines, a tow truck, two squad cars and four detectives arrived on the scene and the woman was taken to Germiston Hospital after exchanging phone numbers with Green.

“She had asked me why I, a stranger, had saved her life. I replied we are both human and this is what we should do for each other.

“We live in a country where we are scared to stop and help another human being. We have lost our humanity,” Green said.

After Green posted on Facebook, Mteto Nyati, CEO of MTN, apologised and said he had initiated an investigation, in which the agent involved would be suspended immediately.