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itnews@itweb.co.za | sales@itweb.co.za | Mon, 14 Sep 2009 |
Dial 17737 for JZ
- Read in this story
- Following up
President Jacob Zuma's answer to service delivery problems – his hotline – went live at 9am today.
The R4 million line was initially announced during the state of the nation address and is meant as a means for disgruntled citizens to take matters right to the top.
A statement issued by the Presidency says: “Public liaison officers in the Union Buildings' call centre will start handling calls and responding to public enquiries” from this morning.
The number – 17737 – is toll-free and, while the line is up and running, government will spend the next few weeks perfecting the service and ensuring all technical and operating aspects work efficiently.
Zuma's hotline and public liaison staff in the Presidency will be backed by 43 newly-assigned public liaison officers in all government departments and offices of premiers. The officers will be responsible for following up the public enquiries and complaints lodged, and ensure these are attended to efficiently.
“The provinces are expected to establish similar services, and to create a forum that includes liaison officers for each municipality so that the service is taken to local government level, including rural municipalities and districts,” the Presidency says.
At the moment, the toll-free number can only be called from landlines as it is blocked from use via cellphones, but government is in talks with mobile operators to remedy this.
The State IT Agency was involved in providing the call centre's technology, which cost taxpayers R1.7 million. It is not clear how the other R2.3 million was spent.
POST YOUR COMMENT
Comments (7)
Sputangia
said:
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I have been monitoring the speed at which the Zuma hotline is being answered. So far I have been unable to get through. I thought: "Well, nobody in this beautiful country of ours would want to talk to the president on a Sunday afternoon at 17h26" So I phoned - so after being told that they are currently experiencing high call volumes and that my call was important!- just to then be reminded that the office hours was Mondays to Fridays 6am - 10pm. 7 March 2010. |
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Sputangia
said:
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On 12 November 2009 I made the second test call to the number. Pressed "2" for the Afrikaans desk (16h00). "Ons ondervind tans hoe volumes inkomende oproepe" After just more than 5 minutes I again received a message indicating that all the Afrikaans speaking operators were busy and that I would be put into the English queue. After another minute or so I hung up 16h06:31). I would have thought that after 2 months they would have sorted this out. |
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Sechaba James Potse
said:
| HI I write this comment because I can't be able to go through to the presidential hot line since is very busy 24/7, my plea is if possible to assisted with my mom finding an alternative foe an (RDP HOUSE) which is in Tshepiso for the one in Jo'burg since has moved up in search of work which she hasn't found yet, the house in Tshepiso has become inhabitable and all aminities has been stolen by the nearby residents because of our absence, she is now staying at the adults shelter here in Jo'burg with means of income whatsoever and I am the only breadwinner in the househobld a as Security Officer with an income which get exhausted whithin a fortnite...Please help!!! | |
Sputangia
said:
| On 5 September 2009 I made a test call to the number. Pressed "2" for the Afrikaans desk (09h36:13). After 5 minutes (09h41:41) I received a message indicating that all the Afrikaans speaking operators were busy and that I would be put into the English queue. After another minute I hung up 09h42). | |
kabila
said:
| this stupid number is not working, itried it ten times today but nothing anyway it will be a waste of time and money as they will nothing done | |
Shakran
said:
|
Hmm. Thought I'd give it a bash so I rang our showehead Pres's office this morning at 10 am. Waited exactly 37 minutes before hanging up, unfortunately I had work to attend to. As to be expected R4 million down the drain. Just think about it, that's 4 BMW X5's they could have bought and had great fun in the emergency lanes. |
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