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In the case of cell phone calls, the number comes up but not the owner’s details, although this could be followed up if necessary.

“Our goal is to answer 60% of the calls within five seconds which would be quite possible if it weren’t for all the prank calls.”

Brand said the hoax callers were not just children.

The calls came from all over the Peninsula and from all ages.

She said at one stage a plan to charge callers for the emergency number had been suggested to cut down on nuisance calls.

“But a decision was taken nationally that it would never work. Everyone must have access to a toll-free number and if people had to hunt for money before they made a call it could cost lives.”

About 80% of calls to the Cape Town unicity’s 107 emergency number are nuisance calls and only about 1% result in the actual dispatch of an emergency service such as an ambulance, the fire brigade or police.

The centre has 90 incoming lines and handles between 100 000 and 150 000 calls a month.

Manager John Ellis said that at the moment there seemed to be a spate of hoax calls from public phones in Mitchell’s Plain and Delft.

He said they were busy with a public education campaign to try to get people to understand the implications. The centre also had 96 panic poles in undeveloped areas where people could communicate with the call centre via radio but many of these had been vandalised.

Ellis said some had been shot at.

“But they have saved lives. We even delivered a baby once, (thanks to a panic pole).”

The 107 centre also handles the SOS poles at the side of the road for the South African National Roads Authority and calls about illegal dumping, land invasions, graffiti and noise pollution.

It is also where the disaster management team operates from.

To dial the Centre from a cell phone, the number is 021 480 7700.

And despite opposition from emergency services experts, the Department of Communications is going ahead with a massive call centre in Strand which will use the number 112.

2. Find one sentence each in the text which contains the word but , because and and. Highlight the sentences in the text.

3. Join each one of the following sentences, using the conjunction between brackets. Cut out any repetition in the joined sentence.

1. The crank caller swore at the operator. The crank caller burped over the line. (and)
2. The telephone system had caller ID. Still the crank callers ‘phoned. (but)
3. The centre had 96 panic poles. Many panic poles were out of order and could not function. (although)
4. Our centre has caller ID. We can identify where the calls are coming from. (so)
5. They were busy with a publicity campaign. It was important for people to understand the implications of hoax calls. (because)

4. Formulate your own sentences, using the following conjunctions:

So, because, and but, although

Oops – the printer’s devil has erased some of the words in this piece of text. Read the article carefully and try to replace the missing words with other words that make sense . . .

Film crews who make movies eat nothing but the best and there’s plenty of food left over.