AS THE festive season sets in, we tend to count down the days to celebrating Christmas with family and friends in the comfort of our homes. This, however, is a luxury some sacrifice in the service of others by working on Christmas Day to ensure the safety and security of our community.
“It’s always nice to spend time off with your family but it’s taken with a real degree of acceptance that we work in a 24/7 environment and our shift lands up working Christmas, we love what we do and this is what we signed up to do.
“At Dynamic Emergency Services we are fortunate enough to all get together on shift and invite our families to join us at our headquarters and have Christmas Day lunch. We are a very close-knit family at our work place. We call it our “home away from home”, it’s like our second family.”
– Wayne James (Paramedic at Dynamic Emergency services)
“It’s a pleasure to work on Christmas, because whether it’s Christmas or not, I am here to render a service to the people of our community. We work 24/7 and make sure everything is in place, so if there are emergencies we are ready for it.” – Thembile Thompson (Firefighter)
“Working on Christmas Day is motivated by our call of duty to serve. Our members prepare Christmas dishes and bring them to work.”
– Captain Mluleki Mbi (SAPS spokesperson)
“I’m actually from India, I recently moved here and it’s my first time working on Christmas. I am Hindu so I don’t celebrate Christmas, which is why I thought it would be better for me to take the Christmas shift instead of some of my colleagues. I will try to make the day as happy as I can for patients and my co-workers.”
– Dr Anadi Triphati (Doctor at Frere Hospital)
“I’d like to be home for Christmas, but this year I am working the day shift. I chose to work on Christmas this year as I managed to get leave last year and wanted to give others the chance to spend Christmas with their families. You always miss home and wonder what your family is up to, but we usually have a potjie or a braai for Christmas lunch at work. We try to make it as fun as we can, but it’s very busy this time of year so we have to stay prepared.”
– Juliano Medina (Firefighter)
