Gauteng's 41 Brand-New Ambulances Sit Unused for 6 Years in Florida Park

• Gauteng Emergency Medical Services purchased 41 ambulances in 2019 at R1 million each, but the fleet has never entered service
• The R41 million worth of vehicles remain parked at the Florida Park fire station pending regulatory approval for deployment
• Health spokesperson Steve Mabona confirmed a new application has been submitted to clear the ambulances for public use

GAUTENG — A fleet of 41 ambulances purchased by Gauteng Emergency Medical Services in 2019 has sat untouched at the Florida Park fire station for six years, unable to enter service due to unresolved regulatory requirements.

According to eNCA, each vehicle was bought at a cost of R1 million, bringing the total investment to R41 million. Despite the significant public expenditure, not a single unit has been deployed to assist residents requiring emergency medical care.

Why the ambulances cannot hit the roads

Health spokesperson Steve Mabona explained that the hold-up is rooted in an administrative process to transfer operational control of the fleet from local municipalities to the provincial government, a step required to bring the vehicles in line with the National Health Act and National Department of Health regulations.

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Mabona noted that national standards are stringent, prescribing specific equipment configurations, vehicle specifications, and paramedic staffing ratios that must be confirmed before any ambulance can lawfully service the public. EMS spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi declined to offer a timeline for when the vehicles might be cleared, saying official updates would only follow once regulatory decisions had been finalised.

New application submitted for fleet clearance

Gauteng Health, which underspent R725 million in the 2025-26 budget, confirmed it has lodged a fresh application with the relevant authorities to authorise the ambulances for deployment. The department expects the process to conclude in the near term, which would finally allow the six-year-old vehicles to begin operating.

The prolonged inactivity raises questions about maintenance and the condition of the fleet after years of storage, though no official assessment of the vehicles' current state has been made public. South Africa's public health system continues to face pressure from inadequate emergency response capacity in several provinces, making the stalled deployment a point of concern for healthcare access in Gauteng.

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Family with corpse waits hours for ambulance

In a related article, Briefly News reported on the tragic case of Lionel Sharp, a 54-year-old man from KuGompo City, who died after awaiting an ambulance that never arrived. This incident underscores the critical ambulance crisis affecting the Eastern Cape, where a significant portion of emergency vehicles are currently out of service.

Source: Briefly News