Memories of July unrest still haunt minds of some KZN paramedics three years later

DURBAN - The memories of violent incidents and the destruction of property that rocked both KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and parts of Gauteng have remained etched in the minds of some of the first respondents who were called on for help.

Tuesday marks three years since the July 2021 unrest, which claimed the lives of more than 300 people amid widespread looting.

Eyewitness News spoke to Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedics in KwaZulu-Natal, who continue to describe that period as traumatic.

They not only attended to several life-threatening incidents but at times, faced the wrath of alleged demonstrators.

Garrith Jamieson said he can never erase the memory of the July unrest.

“Looking at the 3-year July unrest, it was crazy times. As you can imagine, our paramedics were scared to work.”

Jamieson vividly remembers navigating through debris, infrastructure that was falling apart, and the constant worry of whether he and his colleagues would survive the turmoil that had engulfed the province.

“We had two or three ambulances where the windscreens were smashed by rocks being thrown from bridges. People from the N2 bridge above were throwing bricks down onto the cars below.”

While the country has sought to move past the unrest, Jamieson remains reluctant, saying more work needs to be done to better prepare paramedics for incidents like these - one that he said must never happen again.