The Presidential Hotline, a platform for citizens to voice their complaints about the quality of government services, has shown rapid improvement since its inception, says government.
The hotline's case resolution rate stands at 90%, a significant improvement from the 39% reported in November 2009.
According to deputy minister for performance monitoring, evaluation and administration, Obed Bapela, the hotline has dealt with 160 914 cases since its inception in October 2009. Of these cases, 15 773 are still in the process of being resolved.
Presidency spokesperson Harold Maloka says the biggest obstacle towards a 100% case resolution rate is the complexity of some cases. "When complaints are broad-ranging and require many departments and agencies to collaborate and intervene, [it] takes longer to resolve," says Maloka. "Some cases have many years of legal disputes between different parties and these are complex."
The hotline call centre is located at the State IT Agency's Centurion offices, with its back-office located at the Union Buildings. Cases are received via telephone, as well as via various forms of correspondence such as e-mails, letters and memorandums.
"We accept any calls, including requests for information," says Maloka. Between 06:00 and 22:00 on weekdays, there are 15 call centre agents on duty at all times. In the back-office, there is a team of seven officials dedicated to receiving and logging correspondence-based cases, he adds.
Quality improvement
The quality of complaints resolution is as important as the number of complaints resolved, says Bapela. "We have started working with departments to ensure that, in addition to complaints being addressed quickly, citizens are also satisfied with the way in which their cases are resolved."
He noted that since October 2012, interviews were conducted with citizens who logged cases on the hotline to gauge their level of satisfaction with the service.
"Between October and December 2012, we called 3 211 citizens and 64% of respondents rated the service as satisfactory, whereas 34% rated the service they had received as poor."
In some cases, the response given to citizens took too long or the response given did not meet the expectations of the complainant, explains Maloka.
"We are reviewing every case and, if the response given to the citizen is assessed to be not appropriate, we re-open the case for further investigation. We are also working with all government agencies to support them to improve the quality and speed of their management of complaints."
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