Heartbreak hotline?

South African newspapers have been full of headlines about appalling service delivery in the recent past.

Some of the more heart-wrenching ones include:

Man commits suicide over ID book
'We are devastated'
Vaal service delivery protest turns ugly

We all have our own stories to tell. Mine is of blas'e police officers who didn't even bother to speak to me after I was hijacked. I called the 10111 line three times, was cut off each time and - by the time I finally made it to the station in a distraught state - I was threatened with arrest when I reported the crime.

I was called only after logging a complaint on the South African Police Service Web site. An officer wanted to meet with me - but to discuss the complaint, not my case.

I'm sure I'm not alone in these experiences. I can't be.

SA has serious service delivery problems; we all know this. And getting through to anyone in any sort of position of power to do something about anything at all is a nightmare. No wonder a South African took a toy gun to Home Affairs to try and get an ID out of it a few years ago. Pity he was jailed for simply expressing his frustration at a malfunctioning system.

Thousands of South Africans are calling the Presidential Hotline, hoping Jacob Zuma can sort out their problems. Up to 40 calls a minute are being received. The line is permanently engaged and I still have not been able to get through.

They get pushed from pillar to post and back again just trying to make their way through the bureaucratic maze that is government.

Nicola Mawson, group financial editor, ITWeb

The issues being called in by unhappy citizens, I am told, range from allegedly corrupt officials to social security payments not being paid out. There are also complaints about the housing backlog and a lack of sanitation.

My reason for wanting to call is simple: there is a hole in the road. Not big enough to lose a car in, but big enough to destroy the suspension.

This is not a huge problem for someone like me, in the bigger scheme of things. After all, I have insurance and - even better - know how to lodge a complaint with the Johannesburg Roads Agency, because it has not fixed the problem. That's what I did last time - I got my money back and the hole was fixed.

But I am among the fortunate few. I have these resources. People in rural SA do not. And they get pushed from pillar to post and back again just trying to make their way through the bureaucratic maze that is government.

And yes, there should be no need for this type of hotline at all. Government departments have always had hotlines, but these cannot be working if the president's line is so popular. Maybe the department lines are an area of spending that can be cut down on and other lines incorporated into the new one?

The new line, for all its R4 million price tag, is well worth every penny. It is giving people a way to take their problems to government - assuming the call rate slows down - so they can be followed up on and, hopefully, solved. It is also highlighting areas that government must focus on.

Let's say, for example, I have applied umpteen times for an ID book. And each time it gets “lost” in the system. I should be able to call the line, which will follow up with Home Affairs, and sort out the problem with my ID book.

Then I can get a job, which means more tax for government. And I can buy things such as food, which will help grow the economy.

If it works as is claimed, people will call in, and the offending department will be tracked down. Maybe misbehaving government officials will be fired, or at least called to account. And, maybe service delivery in SA will improve.

And if that leads to less heart-breaking headlines, then the hotline will earn back every cent spent on it through increased tourism and investment in SA.

But, if it falls down flat, that R4 million could have been much better spent - on almost 100 new RDP houses, for example.