Presidential hotline making a difference

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Pretoria - Since its inception, the Presidential Hotline continues to change the lives of ordinary citizens, while making government more accessible.

According to the latest statistics, the hotline has an overall case resolution rate of almost 80 percent, which is a significant milestone in the history of the hotline since its establishment in September 2009.

Since 31 January 2012, the hotline has logged a total number of 122 589 calls nationwide with the overall case resolution rate standing at 79.89%. This is a major improvement since 2009, when the resolution rate was at 39%, the Presidency announced on Tuesday.

Most of the complaints are around housing, unemployment, water and electricity problems, law-related matters and education.

The majority of these calls are from KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, which is attributed to the population size.

The Presidency attributed the success of the hotline to better coordination at Directors-General and senior management level of government. Also, responsiveness reports have been regularised on the agenda of Forum of South African Directors-General.

"We are gradually making progress and living up to President Jacob Zuma's promise that citizens will have a platform to communicate with government and get assistance they deserve. As we have begun with our frontline service delivery monitoring, the hotline provides us with good data on which areas need immediate attention and we will respond," says Minister in the Presidency: Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane.

On average, it takes 67 working days to resolve a matter that has been recorded with the hotline. However, there are queries which get immediate response such, as request for information on government services.

To ensure that the hotline operates optimally, the Presidency says it will increase the number of call agents from 20 to 30 as of June this year. This will see an increase to 15 agents per shift operating on two shifts a day.

The complaints are then used by the Department for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as a source of information to access government services with a view to improve responsiveness.

The Presidency said it was aware that a lot still needed to be done to achieve a 100% call resolution rate, and it assured that it was working hard to ensure that every citizen receives a response.

The Presidential Hotline can be reached on 1 7737.