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{
    "id": 1030239,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1030239/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 327,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nambale, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Sakwa Bunyasi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "Similarly, particularly in respect to the police, we had essentially forgotten them as first responders in some cases. In the village, when there is an emergency, ambulances rarely work and you have no neighbour who has a vehicle and the person cannot be able to sit on the motorbike. You can actually call the police for help and if they are lucky to have a vehicle, you can provide fuel because the vehicles are perpetually short of fuel. They may show up and help you through it. So, I think that the component of training is a very core part of what should be inside it even ahead of allowances. Then there is the question of personal safely which for me should come second. Can you imagine that many of the first responders who are directly in the medical field do not even have adequate protective equipment for one reason or another? The country might not have purchased them. They might have only purchased a few and by definition, you cannot shift them from one person to another or if you can, without extensive fumigation which is a challenge. So, there should be adequate PPEs also for the police or, perhaps, dedicated persons within police stations who will be the first responders and who are equipped with PPEs as they might be needed. When it comes down to detention in the cell, you know that if you end up in a police station and you are taken to the cell, you are not escorted in. You are probably kicked in. There is nobody who has the patience to escort you gently in there. We have heard in rural areas of cells where men and women are put together and certainly where children not of the same gender as older people are put together with the older people because of lack of facilities and also lack of intricate awareness of what needs to be done. So, again, there is the element of training there. Training should bring them up to speed. There is the question of allowances. I know the medical staff has been at the forefront in wanting extra allowances; I guess because of the extra risk that you take working in life and death conditions. One might say, maybe, some allowances are justified, but if you look at it closely, no amount of allowance can really compensate you in a life and death situation. Yes, they should get allowances which others are being paid, but let us not get the impression that you get allowances and, therefore, you are okay. You may not be okay despite the allowances. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, with those few comments, let me support this. I just want to say, maybe, we should even be broader. But I think we should put capacity building and training right at the forefront. Thank you."
}