NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 1211
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 27 MARCH 2015
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 09)
Dr H C Volmink (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether he has had any (a) meetings or (b) correspondence with the
Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services on the
implementation of the (i) 112 emergency number and (ii) 112 emergency
centres, as described in the Electronic Communications Act, Act 36 of
2005; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether he has found that the slow progress in implementing the (a)
112 emergency number and (b) 112 emergency centres has adversely
impacted on the response capacity of emergency medical services; if
not, why not; if so, what action has he taken in this regard?
NW1417E
REPLY:
1) (a) There have been several meetings between the Department of
Health and the Department of Communications since 2001. The
National and Provincial Departments of Health collaborated with
the Department of Communications from 2001 to 2009 when the
pilot 112 Communications Centre was established and piloted in
the Western Cape from 2003 to 2010;
(b) The Director-General: Health wrote a letter, dated 14 April
2014, to the Director-General of the Department of
Telecommunications, regarding nationwide implementation of
single emergency number 112. There are ongoing discussions
between the two Departments on how best to fast-track this
process. I have not yet written to the Minister of
Telecommunications as the issue is still being handled and
discussed at Directors-General and officialâs levels;
i) It is important to note that presently 112 emergency number
is used by the cellular service provider in an agreement
with the Department of Communications as part of the
conditions of licence granted by the Independent
Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA);
ii) Cellular service providers as part of their licensing
conditions operate 112 emergency call centres and refer
emergency calls to the respective emergency centre;
I have been informed that it is the intention of the
Department of Communications that once Government 112
Public Emergency Centres are established, the requirement
of the cellular service providers to operate 112 emergency
call centres will fall away.
2) The implementation of 112 emergency number which would then replace
10111 (police), 10777 (emergency medical services) and the numerous
traffic authority and fire brigade numbers that exist in the country
will improve response to emergencies. Numerous emergency numbers used
do create confusion to the public, but also to the service as calls go
to different service providers as they have to be transferred from one
call centre to the other. This also results into multiple emergency
responses to incident and/or scenes of accidents due to lack of
coordination, and results into waste of resources.
END.