EMERGENCY NUMBERS ATTRACT CRANK CALLERS

Read this article taken from The Weekend Argus (16 November 2002)

1. Who wrote this article?

2. For what reason did the journalist write this article?

3. What is the message she is conveying?

4. Summarise this article in one sentence. Write your sentence on a sheet of newsprint and display on the pin board in your classroom for discussion and feedback.

1. Now that you have studied the article properly, see if you can complete the sentences in your own words:

because they ______________

because _____________________

______________________________________

idea, as ______________________

EMERGENCY NUMBERS ATTRACT CRANK CALLERS

Not

The SA Police Service’s 10111 emergency number in Cape Town has become a medium for “shouting, swearing, burping and farting” with those manning the lines frequently having to deal with sexually explicit requests and remarks.

“One in 25 calls is police-related. The rest are nonsense,” Inspector Brand, a spokeswoman, reported.

The centre has also become a lonely hearts club for those just wanting a chat. Brand said an elderly Claremont woman had her phone confiscated because she called 50 times a day and more, and always after a few too many gin and tonics. “She would call when she was sloshed. She could hardly talk but she would jam up the lines for real emergencies.”

Two Paarl schoolboys were recently charged and fined R30 000 after calling 10111 and making hoax bomb threats against their school.

Last year 3.5 million hoax calls were made to the 10111 emergency number, wasting resources and time.

“The hoax and nuisance calls also have a psychological effect on the police because they get “gatvol” and frustrated. They are under huge pressure to get the relevant information as quickly as possible so the appropriate emergency service can be contacted but this just holds everything up,” said Brand.

When Weekend Argus visited the hi-tech R94 million call centre in Pinelands, one caller phoned to ask for a number for a social worker. Another wanted a telephone number for an address in Ravensmead.

The centre has 25 incoming lines manned by 10 to 15 operators a shift.

The calls are transferred to 12 dispatchers who contact the relevant emergency services.

Brand said the centre received between 250 000 to 300 000 calls a month or 7 000 to 12 000 a day.

“We have caller ID, even from the public phone boxes, so we know where the calls are coming from, but often by the time the police get to a call box, the hoax caller has long gone.”

In the case of cell phone calls, the number comes up but not the owner’s details, although this could be followed up if necessary.

“Our goal is to answer 60% of the calls within five seconds which would be quite possible if it weren’t for all the prank calls.”

Brand said the hoax callers were not just children.

The calls came from all over the Peninsula and from all ages.

She said at one stage a plan to charge callers for the emergency number had been suggested to cut down on nuisance calls.

“But a decision was taken nationally that it would never work. Everyone must have access to a toll-free number and if people had to hunt for money before they made a call it could cost lives.”

About 80% of calls to the Cape Town unicity’s 107 emergency number are nuisance calls and only about 1% result in the actual dispatch of an emergency service such as an ambulance, the fire brigade or police.

The centre has 90 incoming lines and handles between 100 000 and 150 000 calls a month.

Manager John Ellis said that at the moment there seemed to be a spate of hoax calls from public phones in Mitchell’s Plain and Delft.

He said they were busy with a public education campaign to try to get people to understand the implications. The centre also had 96 panic poles in undeveloped areas where people could communicate with the call centre via radio but many of these had been vandalised.

Ellis said some had been shot at.

“But they have saved lives. We even delivered a baby once, (thanks to a panic pole).”

The 107 centre also handles the SOS poles at the side of the road for the South African National Roads Authority and calls about illegal dumping, land invasions, graffiti and noise pollution.

It is also where the disaster management team operates from.

To dial the Centre from a cell phone, the number is 021 480 7700.

And despite opposition from emergency services experts, the Department of Communications is going ahead with a massive call centre in Strand which will use the number 112.

2. Find one sentence each in the text which contains the word but, becauseandand. Highlight the sentences in the text.

3. Join each one of the following sentences, using the conjunction between brackets. Cut out any repetition in the joined sentence.

4. Formulate your own sentences, using the following conjunctions:

So, because, and but, although

Oops – the printer’s devil has erased some of the words in this piece of text. Read the article carefully and try to replace the missing words with other words that make sense . . .

Film crews who make movies eat nothingbut the best and there’s plenty of food left over.

A Cape Town woman could not bear seeing the .__________ ¹⁾ go to waste, so she started a project to feed the city’s ____________⁽²⁾.

Bianca du Plessis’s organisation called Feedback collects food from movie sets and takes it to the poorest of the _____________⁽³⁾.

Du Plessis was on the set of a German movie in Cape Town a year ago when she saw the .____________ ⁽⁴⁾ feasts laid on for the ._____________ ⁵⁾.

“But very often there was a lot of beautifully cooked buffet-style food left over. Why should all this go to___________⁶⁾ when there are people going hungry and scratching in ___________⁷⁾ for food?”

She suggested to the German film company⁽⁷⁾ that it should give the leftovers to the poor. The ______________⁽⁸⁾ offered to help set up an organisation that would .________ ⁽⁹⁾ the food to various aid organisations.

Du Plessis said in the __________⁽¹⁰⁾ it was difficult to get other organisations to support the Feedback concept but with persistence and sometimes having to take “not now but later” for an answer she pulled it off.

She also got Engen to sponsor petrol.

Du Plessis said Feedback had grown into a collection and delivery service that aimed to redistribute excessfood and food donations to communities in need.

It provided a two-way service, by taking excess food from establishments that no longer needed it and delivering it to projects helping the poorest of the poor.

“Once we’ve collected a food donation, we deliver it to one or several of our 69 beneficiaries immediately. This way we minimise waste and ensure that the food reaches needy communities as fast as possible.”

Feedback has four vehicles that travel an average of 60 000 km a month delivering food to shelters, havens, crèches and clinics.

She said because of the demand in Cape Town, Feedback had set up an office in Johannesburg three months ago and would welcome any form of support, especially from food suppliers.

“As the demand for our services increases so it becomes more costlyto maintain the trucks and employ staff.”