Ambulance driver suspended

2010-09-17 10:17

Cape Town - The Eastern Cape health department is now taking action on a rape complaint lodged against an ambulance driver in February this year.

"The driver has since been suspended and [will] appear before an internal disciplinary hearing next week," said spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo on Thursday.

Kupelo said the complainant, a woman, reported the alleged attack to the department's call centre seven months ago.

However no action was taken, and instead she had been receiving anonymous calls warning her to drop the complaint.

Kupelo said the office of MEC Phumulo Masualle heard about it this week, and immediately took it up.

The woman had been accompanying her sick child in an ambulance from Grahamstown to Port Elizabeth when the alleged rape occurred.

She had told the call centre that the driver stopped the vehicle and raped her. She had also laid a complaint with police.

- SAPA