Service providers have been blasted for not having proper security measures in place to protect the identities of their clients.

This after several cellphone users from different service providers fell victim to identity theft in a number-porting scam.

The online crime sees fraudsters transfer clients’ cellphone numbers from their  network service provider to another without the clients’ knowledge.

In one instance, an MTN user received a SMS on Saturday afternoon confirming that a porting request was being processed on his cellphone number.

“The port request has been received and is now being processed,” the message from the service provider read.

When phoning MTN to report the matter, the call centre told him the porting department was open only on weekdays.

On Monday morning he was lucky. He was informed that the porting request had been declined because he was on contract.

A Cell C user was not so fortunate.

Nonkululeko Njilo told TimesLIVE she received an SMS on Sunday evening that an application to port her number was successful.

Her number was ported to MTN without her authorisation.

An ambulance assistant was left temporarily blinded after he was sprayed with a liquid during an ambulance robbery in Ntuzuma E section, north of Durban, in the early hours of Monday.

Netcare 911 managing director Craig Grindell confirmed the incident took place while paramedics were attending to a patient.

“As Netcare 911 emergency medical services practitioners were loading the patient into the ambulance, they were approached by two people who demanded they hand over their possessions, and then fled the scene,” Grindell said.

Grindell said the two knife-wielding men sprayed a substance, believed to be petrol or brake fluid, into the eyes of one of the paramedics before they fled.

“Another Netcare 911 response vehicle rushed to the scene, and both the patient and the ambulance crew members were transported to the hospital for further treatment,” said Grindell.

“Fortunately, the ambulance emergency assistant’s eyesight has now been restored. Counselling is being offered to the patient and our staff members following the crime, which has been reported to the police,” he said.

Grindell expressed his disappointment about the situation.

“It is disappointing that emergency medical services are targeted while providing communities with life-saving emergency medical services. However, thankfully in this case, no serious injuries were sustained,” he said.

South Africans prefer to own their own vehicles, are sceptical of overseas trends like carpooling and are happy to pay for apps that make their time on the road quicker and safer.

This is according to the latest Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study.

The country’s constrained economy was evident in the finding that “South African consumers are looking for practicality and 67% said they would consider a model that offers more utility, compared to 26% who would likely favour more luxury”.

In addition, second-hand cars are in demand.

“South Africans still place a high value on owning their own cars and purchasing a car is also still very much a rite of passage for most South Africans. However, we have in recent years seen more and more consumers opting for used cars instead of new cars,” said Deloitte Africa Automotive monitor Adheesh Ori.

One of the leaders of a splinter refugee group living in the Central Methodist Church in Cape Town appeared in court on robbery charges on Monday.

Lusilu Papy Sukami, 44, was arrested on Friday as tension among the refugees at the church escalated.

According to the charge sheet, Sukami, from the Congo, allegedly assaulted Serge Shauba in the Cape Town CDB in October 2019 and robbed him of an iPhone 6, a Canon camera, a wallet, R2,000, cards, a watch and shoes.

Sukami was also accused of robbing Jurol Leomba, whose Samsung Galaxy cellphone, wallet, R200, Canon camera and bank cards were taken on the same day.

Sukami appeared briefly in the Cape Town magistrate’s court. The state asked for time to obtain more information to prepare for his bail application.

The prosecution said it had received more complaints about Sukami and intended to oppose his release on bail. The matter was postponed until Thursday.

A father whose child was born in a minibus taxi has been banned from Chiawelo Clinic in Soweto for allegedly intimidating a nurse, who he accused of refusing to help the mother of his child.

“A restraining order has been obtained against the father as he continues to patrol the clinic premises, parking area and – worse – the labour ward, looking for the nurse who attended to his girlfriend and child – and violating the privacy of other mothers in labour,”  said Lerato Madumo-Gova, spokesperson for Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU).

TimesLIVE reported in December that the baby was alive and healthy after being born in a taxi.

A video of the woman after she had given birth went viral. In the video, a man can be heard shouting about a nurse allegedly refusing to attend to the mother.

“I am not fighting – I am fighting her statement that she won’t help her because they deliver at the labour ward, not inside the car. The baby is already here … and she’s telling us that she won’t help her!” he shouted.

The provincial health department at the time denied that the nurse refused to help.

“The patient was received by the security guard at the labour ward, who informed the nurses that there was a patient who delivered in the car. The nurse went to the car where the patient delivered to assess [her] condition,” said Mogeru Morewane, chief director of the Johannesburg health district.

After ascertaining that the placenta was still inside the mother, the nurse went back inside to collect medical instruments.

The union said the decision to ban the man was made after an incident on December 12.  “The father of the child came to the clinic with eight other men, demanding answers from nurses,” said Madumo-Gova.

The union said it advocated for “superior nursing care at all times”, but disapproved of anyone abusing or intimidating health care providers or ignoring formal complaints processes already in place.

Nearly a month since the incident, no settlement had been reached with the family.

“The family called the facility manager, who advised them to lodge a formal complaint in writing so that the matter may be … investigated accordingly. Without any written complaint to the facility on that day, the family escalated the matter to the MEC of health in Gauteng and to media houses, which started contacting the clinic.”