Pretoria - The public has been urged to first pursue local and provincial complaints structures before escalating their service delivery complaints to the Presidential Hotline.
"Only when their issues are not resolved, should the public escalate their challenges to the President's Hotline and upon receipt of poor service elsewhere in the government system," the Presidency said on Wednesday.
The 17737 toll free hotline (1 PRES), is a service delivery improvement intervention that assists with planning, monitoring and evaluation of government performance in the delivery of services.
Since the start of operations on Monday the centre has been recording high call volumes. People have been unable to get through to the call centre because of an influx of phone calls.
The Presidency has since urged members of the public who do not get through to the Presidential Hotline the first time, to be patient as the glitches will be sorted out.
There was also a high prank call, or drop-call rate, due to poor cellular connectivity, said the Presidency. These prank calls, which were in the region of 50 to 60 percent, prevent other important queries from being heard.
According to the Presidency, 31 agents were handling call logging and routing them to the public liaison structures across the country.
With the help of the Public Liaison Officers in departments and provinces, members of the public will be provided with feedback on their queries.
There is a team who follow queries through the relevant channels until they are resolved.
If the lines are busy, government has urged members of the public to try following alternative numbers: Fax: 086 681 0987 or 012-323 8246, E-mail: president@po.gov.za.
The public can also refer to the Batho Pele Gateway for government information which can be reached at 1020.
