SA's emergency services system needs an emergency overhaul!.

Around 8 pm tonight, a guy was hit by a very speeding car right in front of me. Now as I sit on my bed thinking about the whole incident, I realise that its not only the sight of his injuries that's disturbing me, but also the slow progress we're making as a country...especially when it comes to emergency services. Perhaps I should start from where it all began. So, a man presumably in his early 30s was knocked down by a speeding delivery bakkie (light truck) while crossing the road, and his foot came off-literally. As I stood in disbelief on the other side of the road trying to convince myself that I was probably dreaming, I saw him try to get up before he realised that he no longer had a foot and fainted. The car that hit him slowed down until it stopped about a 100 metres from the scene, but for reasons I don't know...the person drove off. I really don't like to see blood, but I immediately went across the street to try and help him. The first thing I noticed,obviously, was that he needed immediate medical attention, otherwise he wasn't going to make it. So I called the state Emergency number which was almost impossible to get through. When I finally did they were most unhelpful, asking a bunch of stupid questions like "are you sure he needs an ambulance?". Anyhow, they couldn't send one over, because "they were all busy". I then called private Emergency services company ER24 who are almost always reliable. But, today the person assisting me on the phone was either new on the job or poorly trained. I did my best trying to help her so she could help me. More than 10 minutes later I got an SMS from them (ER24) giving me a reference number and I realised then that the night was about to get longer. It turns out the only thing the dispatch lady got right was my cellphone number. The address they'd sent me was different from the one I gave her. Keep in mind that during all this, there's a guy lying in excruciating pain on the pavement in this cold winter night. I saw some private ambulance cruising slowly and I flagged them to stop and help, which they did. While they were busy, I called the police and they assured me that they were sending people over. Well, they never arrived. Again I saw a police van cruising past and I stopped them. I don't know if they were tired or just not interested, but they weren't asking any important questions. I told them that I'm a journalist and am not impressed with their work ethic and that's when they started to take me seriously. I told them everything I remembered about the culprit's car and even suggested that we go to the garage nearby to see if their CCTV camera's didn't catch the incident. I felt like I was doing their work for them. Anyhow, the manager was not there and he's the only person with the keys to the control room. The paramedics finally took the guy to a hospital almost an hour after he was knocked down. I didn't even get a chance to ask them which hospital they were taking him to so I could go see him later. The not so enthusiastic cops assured me that they were going to follow the case up and make sure that they find the culprit. I'm not convinced they meant it, but certainly hope they did. So, as a country we have an Emergency services with a lot of loopholes. From medical Emergency lines that are no better than Eskom, to inept cops who are seemingly in it for the salaries. A man's life hangs on the balance now and even if he makes it, his life is never going to be the same. The person responsible for all this unfortunate circumstance is comfortable somewhere with their family and might probably never get caught for their cruel deed, let alone own up to it. So many questions that will probably never be answered, all because of our useless emergency services system. So then one is left to wonder, How secure are we really in south Africa?!.