Presidential Hotline: Week 7 - False information and poor service

In successfully registering three new complaints with the Presidential Hotline this week, a number of problems with the quality of service the hotline provides have come to light. They are as follows:

False information

In response to one of our complaints, that since 2006 no houses had been built on the concrete slabs cast in Motwaneng Village, in Limpopo, we received an e-mail from the Department of Human Settlements, to say the problem had been resolved (see Annexure 1, below). I visited the village last week, as part of my Parliament for the People tour (see pictures and report here).

The e-mail states: "Your reported Incident has been resolved with the following resolution:"

But it stops there. There is no resolution.

Even if there was, the department seems to be claiming that, in just two days since we registered our complaint, it has built houses for the whole village.

Quite patently, this is not possible.

When we phoned the hotline to get more clarity on the matter the operator informed us that that the department had not informed the hotline that they had dealt with the issue and that it was still recorded as "under investigation" on the system.

It is evident that there is a serious breakdown in communication between the hotline and government departments. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The Department thinks it has built houses it hasn't touched in three years, in two days. The system cannot function if the government itself doesn't know what's going on.

Poorly recorded information 

After we registered our complaints with the operators, we were sent emails that contained the reference number for each complaint as well as a short report summarising the nature of the complaint (see Annexure 2, below). However, the two e-mails were so garbled and poorly written that the actual integrity of the complaints was compromised.

For example, in registering a complaint about the poor quality of an RDP housing project in Mokopane (Limpopo), also uncovered on my recent visit, we made the point to the Hotline that those people who now occupy the houses never signed ‘happy letters'. Happy letters are those documents which a person is required to sign on receiving a house, which, by signing, the person is agreeing that they are satisfied with the house. Not signing them, means they were either not consulted about this, or weren't happy. Either way it's a problem.

The e-mail confirmation reads: "Caller says she was visiting Limpompo when she came accross an RDP project that was running,she said people who are living in those houses didn't sign happily and that there is no water and electricty."

It misses the point of the complaint entirely. Several other, important points were omitted from the confirmation entirely. Despite being friendly and enthusiastic, the people manning the helpline are not able to properly capture or understand the nature of complaints being registered, which defeats the very purpose of the Hotline.

General procedural flaws

It is apparent, from following up on an earlier complaint, that all the Hotline does is refer those complaints received to the relevant department. However, it has no power to enforce deadlines or sanctions on that department. So complaints are just left up to the discretion of the relevant department and, in the DA's experience - certainly with regard to the particular complaint we were enquiring about - just ignored.

The entire process seems to be all smoke and mirrors. No substance. No outcomes. The hotline appears to be just a process designed to give people the impression that it is concerned with outcomes but, ultimately just a R7.6 million intermediary step to refer people to another process, which achieves next to nothing.

These problems fly in the face of Minister Collins Chabane's recent response to a parliamentary question posed by the DA that "Neither the President's Hotline nor the system itself is dysfunctional in any way" and "the call logging system is also fully functional and all calls can be accessed and tracked via the system."

Conclusion

There has been a marked increase in the number of times the DA gets through to an operator at the Presidential Hotline, and successfully registers a complaint. However, we have spent just under 15 hours (894 minutes) trying to reach the Presidential Hotline in the seven weeks since its inception. The average number of minutes we have been put on hold during the past week, before an operator answers our call is around 15 minutes, which means registering a complaint remains a time-consuming and costly exercise for the ordinary South African.

A full summary of all the DA's calls, to date, follows below this statement (see Annexure 3).

ANNEXURE 1: E-mail from Department of Human Settlements:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: AREmail <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, October 28, 2009 5:12:15 PM
Subject: Incident INC000002099510 reported by you has been resolved. complain about limpopo province in marble
Dear [name removed],

We are pleased to inform you that your reported Incident has been resolved.

Reference No.: INC000002099510

Summary: complain about limpopo province in marble

Your reported Incident has been resolved with the following resolution:

Please do not hesitate to contact the Service Desk should there be any further questions or inquiries regarding your Incident.  Please quote your assigned Reference Number.

Yours sincerely,

Service Desk

ANNEXURE 2: Confirmation e-mails from the Presidential Hotline

From: AREmail <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, October 26, 2009 12:40:05 PM
Subject: Incident INC000002086072 receipt confirmation.

Dear [Name removed],

We are pleased to inform you that your reported Incident has been added to the Service Desk.  Your assigned Reference Number is INC000002086072.  This number should be retained for reference purposes.

Reference No.: INC000002086072

Summary: Complaint about service delivery at Mokopane area ext 20 in limpompo

Notes: Caller says she was visiting Limpompo when she came accross an RDP project that was running,she said people who are living in those houses didn't sign happily and that there is no water and electricty.

The houses were built in the lowest level and that when it rains the houses gets to be flooded and this scares them for tsome have young children,they have also tried to speak to them local municipality and they got a just one visit from the municipality and no feedback ever since.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Service Desk should there be any further questions or inquiries regarding your Incident.  Please quote your assigned Reference Number.

Yours sincerely,

Service Desk

From: AREmail <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, October 27, 2009 10:58:34 AM
Subject: Incident INC000002099510 receipt confirmation.

Dear [Name removed],

We are pleased to inform you that your reported Incident has been added to the Service Desk.  Your assigned Reference Number is INC000002099510.  This number should be retained for reference purposes.

Reference No.: INC000002099510

Summary: complain about limpopo province in marble

Notes: caller says there were people housing projects and the other was runned by naboom construction.

caller says the company were running the projects did not finish their jobs,, the contract was given to naboom construction

caller says the issues are in motwaneng village in Marble Hall

caller says with the people housing process projects they did not also finish their work.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Service Desk should there be any further questions or inquiries regarding your Incident.  Please quote your assigned Reference Number.

Yours sincerely, 
Service Desk

ANNEXURE 3: Summary of DA calls to the Presidential Hotline

Statement issued by Athol Trollip, MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, October 30 2009

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