"Week 1: DA reports on the Presidential hotline, but still waiting for reference numbers"
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has recorded a success rate of 14% in reaching Jacob Zuma's Presidential Hotline. Out of 28 connected calls only 4 were answered by an operator. This is not counting the dozens of times that we were cut off before even reaching the language selection menu. The DA success rate was higher than the average.
The hotline received 8001 connected calls between 6am and 1.30pm on the second day of operation, and of these only 492 were answered by the 31 call centre agents. This means that the call centre has a success rate of 6%.
The DA has spent close to four hours (228 minutes) trying to reach the Presidential Hotline during the week. Four complaints were registered, these are as follows:
- We requested an investigation into the appointment of Paul Ngobeni as legal advisor to Defence Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu.
- We reported the unfinished repair work at the N2 Gateway Project.
- The crisis at the Nyanga Refugee Centre was reported and we requested an investigation into the matter.
- Priscilla Nkwinika, Mpumalanga Public Works head, was reported for costing taxpayers millions of rands after failing to finalise a telecommunications tender, which, since 2006 has cost the department a minimum of R582 222,90 a month. During the same call we also reported senior managers at the Mkhondo municipality in Mpumalanga who have allegedly misappropriated more than R20million of tax-payers' money earmarked for service delivery.
Despite not being able to call the process of lodging a complaint a satisfactory one, the DA has noted an improvement in the time it takes to reach an operator. The waiting period before being cutoff has also been reduced from 16 minutes to 6 minutes.
We are still waiting for reference numbers for all four cases.
While it is still time consuming to get through to operators, the DA must congratulate the operators on responding effectively to queries and doing so in a professional manner.
In response to the overwhelming number of calls, the public has been advised to first pursue all their service delivery complaints with their local and provincial complaints structures and make use of other hotlines already in operation, e.g. the National Anti-Corruption Hotline for the Public Service: 0800 701 701. The hotline's attempt to divert some of the traffic is a clear indication that the Presidential office underestimated the depth of dissatisfaction with service delivery in South Africa.
The DA has heeded the request from the Presidency to only lodge calls when other avenues have failed.
Statement issued by Helen Zille, Democratic Alliance leader, September 18 2009
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