The fatal mob attack in Dunoon, where a witness says his 10111 distress call was dropped while four people were being killed, pushed South Africa's emergency call system to the top of the talk radio agenda in late August. Presenters and callers across Cape Talk, Power FM, SAfm, 702 and BizNews Radio moved from anecdote to system critique, framing 10111 not as a broken phone number but as a broken architecture — one where up to 30% of calls nationally are dropped, operators are undertrained, and equipment is decades out of date.
Parliament's Police Portfolio Committee, led by chairperson Ian Cameron, used the airwaves to float a rescue plan covering staffing, training, equipment audits and digital mapping. Cape Talk hosted the sharpest technical debate, with former Western Cape EMS director Dr Cleve Robertson arguing the crisis is less about which number citizens dial — 10111, 112, 10177 or the City's 021 480 7700 — and more about the absent management layer beneath them. SAfm widened the frame to the Eastern Cape ambulance fleet, while Power FM pressed on accountability for the individual operator in the Dunoon call.
A single dropped call reframes a national system
The arc began with one call that didn't connect. On Cape Talk's afternoon news, presenters reported that a witness to the deadly Dunoon mob attack had dialled the police, only for the distress call to be dropped mid-report as four people were killed.1 Within days the story had migrated from crime bulletin to policy debate, with Parliament's Police Portfolio Committee chairperson Ian Cameron using the airwaves to announce a proposed rescue plan for the 10111 line.2
Cameron's framing, repeated across stations, was deliberately structural. "We need to make sure that we replace failing equipment. Every phone, radio, workstation, dispatch system, etc. should be audited and replaced into something that actually works. We must introduce modern live location and digital mapping systems," he told Cape Talk listeners.3 On Power FM the following morning he pushed back against the idea that disciplining the Dunoon operator would be enough: accountability was necessary, he said, but would not address staffing pressures, inadequate ongoing training and aging technology.4
The scale: "25 to 30 percent of calls" dropped
Power FM's interview with Cameron produced the number that anchored much of the week's coverage. "If you look at the last annual performance plan and also the relevant strategic reports from the police, we're looking at about between 25 to 30 percent of calls nationally being dropped or abandoned," he said, arguing that many 10111 members are simply not equipped for the role.5 BizNews Radio had already been circling the same terrain, pointing listeners to reporting on "half the country's police stations not answering their own phones" alongside DNA backlogs and top-heavy SAPS management.6
Cape Talk's number problem
Nowhere was the confusion of the citizen's-eye view clearer than on Cape Talk, where John Maytham and colleagues spent successive afternoons trying to establish which number listeners should actually dial. Alderman JP Smith, the City's MMC for safety and security, urged residents to programme the City's 021 480 7700 line into their phones and explained that a call there connects through to SAPS, provincial traffic, and the provincial ambulance service. "If you're having challenges with 10111, please do then immediately call our call centre," he said.7 Smith added that the City is still lobbying Minister Malatsi to allow 10111 to be reached from a cell phone, and that 112 calls in Cape Town are generally routed to the City's own centre.8
Listeners reinforced the point. One WhatsApp message read on air was emphatic: "Do not call 10111 from a cell phone. It is fine from a landline."9 Another praised the City's 021 number for immediate response to a mountain fire and a highway accident.10 By the next afternoon presenters were reading out a menu — 10111, 112, 10177 Crime Stop, and the City's line — and openly asking whether ordinary people could be expected to remember any of it.11
"It's less about the number and more about the system"
The most sustained diagnosis came from Dr Cleve Robertson, former director of EMS in the Western Cape, in an extended Cape Talk interview. 112, he noted, has existed in South African law since the Electronic Communications Act of 2005, with regulations published in 2008, "but further than that, it really hasn't evolved."12 The problem, he argued, was the missing management layer: "It's less about the number and more about the system that you build under the number. And unfortunately, in this country, we haven't built that system."12
Robertson traced how rural police call-taking still often lands at individual station level, and said the real fix requires emergency services to work together — "and that requires political and good leadership at a very" senior level.13 His closing line was among the week's bleakest: money that could have built out 112 had been spent on the digital television rollout, so "you can die watching your TV. But public safety really isn't high up there on the agenda."14
SAfm widens the lens to ambulances
SAfm pushed the story beyond the police line into the wider emergency-response chain. A Port Elizabeth caller described phoning an emergency number only to find "the systems were just so poor, so they couldn't even respond effectively," with people losing their lives as a result.15 A listener from the Northern Cape asked bluntly: "Where is the oversight? Are there no audits? Is there anyone who asks questions when ambulances do not respond to calls by people in need?"16
Those questions framed SAfm's interview with the Eastern Cape Health Department's acting HOD, Dr Tamlashe, after Daily Maverick reporting that more than 200 ambulances were out of service.17 Presenter Joanne pressed him when he suggested only 30% of Eastern Cape calls are real emergencies: "It sounds a little bit like you're deflecting here… that's not the core reason for our discussion today. It's because you've not been able to either maintain or develop a fleet that is fit for use in your province."18 The national norm, listeners were reminded, is one ambulance per 10,000 population — a benchmark the province is nowhere near.19
Accountability and what happens next
By midweek the conversation had converged on two questions: what happens to the individual Dunoon operator, and whether the institutional response will go further. SAPS has initiated internal disciplinary proceedings, Power FM reported, but Cameron warned that disciplining one employee will not address the broader problems.20 "It's absolutely critical that there be a deeper institutional investigation because it's not the first time that this happens," he told the station.21
What remains unresolved on air is whether the Portfolio Committee's proposed audit — of every phone, radio, workstation and dispatch system — will actually be resourced, and whether the political leadership Robertson called for will materialise. For now, talk radio's practical advice to listeners has been to save a local municipal emergency number in their phones and hope the system beneath the number improves before they need it.
- 702
- BizNews Radio
- Cape Talk
- Power FM
- SAfm
Citations
- 1.
“Will restore the normal route as soon as the scene is cleared. Please check the My City app or website for real-time updates. It is time for Eyewitness News Headlines at 10:30 exactly. Natalie Mulcha standing by. Thank you, Clarence. Good morning. The Police Portfolio Committee has proposed a rescue plan for the 101 Police Emergency Line. It follows a raft of complaints that the helpline is unavailable in a crisis. In a recent incident, a witness to the deadly mob attack.”
- 2.
“Danoon says he called the police, but the distress call was dropped while he was reporting the incident. Four people died. The portfolio committee chairperson Ian Cameron says the proposed plan will address, amongst other things, staffing vacancies, years of service, and career progression. We need to make sure that we replace failing equipment. Every phone, radio, workstation, dispatch system, etc. should be audited and replaced into something that actually works. We must introduce modern live location and digital mapping systems.”
- 3.
“Danoon says he called the police, but the distress call was dropped while he was reporting the incident. Four people died. The portfolio committee chairperson Ian Cameron says the proposed plan will address, amongst other things, staffing vacancies, years of service, and career progression. We need to make sure that we replace failing equipment. Every phone, radio, workstation, dispatch system, etc. should be audited and replaced into something that actually works. We must introduce modern live location and digital mapping systems.”
- 4.
“In the incident on Sunday, and the South African police has initiated an internal disciplinary process following a complaint about how the emergency call was handled. Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police Chairperson Ian Cameron says accountability is necessary if the operator acted improperly, but wants that disciplining one employee will not address the broader problems with 101. That includes staffing pressures, inadequate ongoing training, and aging technology and equipment.”
- 5.
“All those issues, staffing, ongoing training, equipment, outdated technology, and so on and so forth. How serious are these problems? And I mean, naturally, one would believe that they are compromising the public's ability to get help in an emergency, as the Danoon matter shows. Yeah, at the moment, we're looking at, if you look at the last annual performance plan and also the relevant strategic reports from the police, we're looking at about between 25 to 30 percent of calls nationally being dropped or abandoned.”
- 6.
“122 generals and Brigidiers, a 300,000 case DNA backlog, and half the country's police stations not answering their own phones. Check out biznews.com for more. Now, you can imagine, in a country with a crisis like we do with sexual offenses and violence against women and children, what a risk and threat this further poses to people. The story I always share and I've actually shaded on a biznews platform was the story of Chantal Macqueenire and Rocklands in the Eastern Cape.”
- 7.
“Emergency. When you're stuck on the freeway, you will appreciate that number because it will get us to come and stand down with you. When there is a fire at your home or a patient collapses, we also connect to the provincial traffic. We will also connect you through to SAPS and we connect to the provincial ambulance service. We actually dispatch for them. So those are one single emergency number in the city that you need. And if you're having challenges with Mono111, please do then immediately call our call center. We do try and answer calls.”
- 8.
“Complaints and call taking an emergency system. Sadly, that has not materialized yet, but we continue. We're also engaging Minister Malazi to try and make it possible for the 107 number to be called via the cell phone. And of course, if you call your 112 emergency number on your cell phone in Cape Town, they will generally put you through to the 107 call center. Yeah, I mean, Gareth has written to say the general number is 112, but 90.”
- 9.
“Like the Cape Talk page to stay up to date. An emphatic message on the WhatsApp line: do not call 1011 from a cell phone. It is fine from a landline. But also learn your phonetics, alpha phonetics. Your conversation with the emergency services will be a lot quicker. How many people actually know the alpha phonetics? Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, N.”
- 10.
“Good afternoon. Good afternoon, John. I do have a message from a listener saying one of the first numbers I've got on my phone is the emergency number for the city of Cape Town, the 0214807700 number, and writes: I phoned that number two or three times for emergencies, such as a fire which had just started on the mountain, an accident which had happened on the highway. They were amazing. Sent services immediately, as well as following up with me. And I know that one of the things you would like to do is just remind.”
- 11.
“We're in trouble at the moment and not in the Hout Bay and not having access to that app. You know, what number? I mean, you spoke well of 112, but we've got 107. If you want to reach the city of Cape Town's Emergency Communications Center, there's 021487700. There is 112, there's 1011, and there's Crime Stop, there's 10177. You know, all of these numbers.”
- 12.
“A management layer that came on top of that. So it's less about the number and more about the system that you build under the number. And unfortunately, in this country, we haven't built that system. So it's one hundred two in this country is the emergency number. It exists in terms of the Electronic Communications Act of 2005. There were regulations published in 2008. But further than that, it really hasn't involved. It exists both on the cellular network and on the public service telephone network.”
- 13.
“In the central Karoo district, because the calls all went to that central point and they dispatched from that point ambulance, spiral, or traffic. Police call taking in the rural areas was always on a station-by-station basis. So if you dialed one at 1001, it actually went to the police station, which is in itself also a problem. I mean, the next step in the equation really is that emergency services in this country need to work together, and that requires political and good leadership at a very”
- 14.
“112 system had been spent on the rollout of digital television. So you can die watching your TV. But public safety really isn't high up there on the agenda. Dr. Cleve Robertson, former director of EMS in the Western Cape, Cleve, thanks for your expertise. It's 29 minutes now to four o'clock. Wesley Peterson is at the Eyewitness News desk, and where's the city still awaiting ministerial input on its push to have an investigative arm for municipal”
- 15.
“Watched the whole response and as a result, people either lost their lives or they were critical. Something happened. I really, I'm very sketchy, so I can't say more, but you may know. This happened a few days ago. So, calling into the emergency number, but the systems were just so poor, so they couldn't even respond effectively. Ashwar, I'm a resident of Port Elizabeth, Sunday speaking. This ambulance situation, you called for an emergency.”
- 16.
“In this case, here, right? Good afternoon. It's a long message. Keep the messages short. Good afternoon, Ashrab. This is Maribus Seng from the Northern Cape. It's shocking to hear that an ambulance service can be allowed to be so depleted without a consequence. How can such a situation be tolerated? Where is the oversight? Are there no audits? Is there anyone who asks questions when ambulances do not respond to calls by people in need? Is anyone counting these and other pertinent questions? The country needs a majority.”
- 17.
“On what it says is widespread disarray within the fleet of ambulances in the Eastern Cape. And apparently, there are ambulances in use, although many of them can't be used because they need to be repaired. Others are parked at public facilities, but they can't be used because they lack important equipment. And it sounds like the emergency services staff are really feeling deeply demoralized by what is going on on the ground. We know they've been attacked in the past as well. So I want to first hear from acting HOD at the Eastern Cape Health Department.”
- 18.
“30% of the calls are real emergencies in Eastern Cape. But I think that's a discussion for another. Yeah, it certainly is because it sounds a little bit like you're deflecting here, Dr. Tamlashe. I think you're making a good point, but that's not the core reason for our discussion today. It's because you've not been able to either maintain or develop a fleet that is fit for use in your province. Now, you've now put 10 million into it. What is that going to give the province in terms of ambulances and access?”
- 19.
“And respond to your messages on the voice note line. On the issue of ambulances, which we spoke about earlier, the national norm for ambulances is one ambulance per 10,000 population. How far is the department in reaching that national norm looking at the number of ambulances that are operational? What about the shortage of staff to work in these ambulances, including advanced life support paramedics and managers to oversee these ambulances and staff? What is the department doing about that? Such a pertinent question, and I'm sorry that we didn't.”
- 20.
“In the incident on Sunday, and the South African police has initiated an internal disciplinary process following a complaint about how the emergency call was handled. Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police Chairperson Ian Cameron says accountability is necessary if the operator acted improperly, but wants that disciplining one employee will not address the broader problems with 101. That includes staffing pressures, inadequate ongoing training, and aging technology and equipment.”
- 21.
“We understand that the South African police have initiated disciplinary proceedings against the particular operator. Now, if the investigation finds that the call was mishandled, what level of accountability should follow? Well, this is the thing, right? I think that it's absolutely critical that there be a deeper institutional investigation because it's not the first time that this happens. The long and the short of it is that many of these 1011 members are not equipped and”