Emergency call centre fine - cops

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• Emergency call centre damaged

Johannesburg - An electrical surge caused by a storm did not affect a Midrand emergency centre's call system, police said on Thursday.

“The challenges experienced were with the dispatching (radio) system,” Brigadier Neville Malila said in a statement.

“A backup system with handheld radios was implemented when the systems were down. This has resulted in all the calls received (being) sent to the vehicles to attend complaints,” he said.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that an electrical surge crippled the centre's control systems.

Two weeks after the storm damage, power had reportedly still not been properly restored, and the centre was reliant on generators that did not produce sufficient power.

Control-room staff were forced to take down call details by hand and use hand-held radios.

Malila said two generators had been installed.

“(It was) enough to power approximately double the need of 10111.”

He said there was a power problem on Tuesday, but that it had been fixed.

“The power to the centre was restored and the system is up and running,” said Malila. - Sapa