The Presidential Hotline is set to go live this month as promised, at a cost of more than R4 million.
Vusi Mona, head of communications in the presidency, says a “sophisticated telephony” system, as well as supporting hardware and software, cost government R4 million.
Another R1.5 million will be spent each year on salaries for the 70 call centre staff. Additional running costs are also expected, he says.
President Jacob Zuma promised the hotline during his state of the nation address in June. It is meant to be a tool to allow disgruntled citizens to communicate directly with the presidency about service delivery issues.
The hotline is set to go live this week, with the toll-free number to be announced shortly. Initially, a pilot phase will run, says Mona.
The State IT Agency (SITA) is responsible for the technological infrastructure. A presentation by the agency's senior manager of service management, Gopal Reddy, yesterday indicated agents will be conversant in all languages.
Calls will also be recorded and there will be a call logging and tracking platform, Reddy says. SITA will ensure the technology is robust through the use of an IT service management system, he says.
In addition, the system allows for real-time telephony performance, as well as Web-based call centre status and trend reports, he notes.
Bird's-eye view
Mona says the system will be integrated with all government departments' databases. He explains this will allow call centre staff to respond, within 36 hours, to members of the public who have lodged a complaint.
“We can tell them what is going on, where their application is, within 36 hours,” he explains.
The centre has made provision for 1 500 calls a day, but the infrastructure can be scaled up should more complaints come in than expected.
The technology and related infrastructure have been delivered, he says. However, at the moment, the toll-free number can only be called from landlines.
Mona says this is because the number is blocked from use with cellphones, but government is in talks with mobile operators to remedy this, he adds. “More people in SA have cellphones than landlines.”
More than 70 people will staff the first line of enquiries and they are trained to provide information on the spot. An additional 21 people will be based at the Union Buildings to handle referred calls, says Mona.
Within other departments - nationally and at a provincial level - staff have been moved from their current positions to take up the job of a public liaison officer. Mona explains these staff members were previously doing similar tasks.
President Jacob Zuma can also monitor turnaround times and call from his office. Mona explains that he can pick up incoming calls too. “For Jacob Zuma, this is not a public relations exercise.”
Ill spent
Last month, Joe Mcgluwa, Independent Democrats national organiser and Member of Parliament, welcomed the impending launch of the Presidential Hotline.
“While we welcome the establishment of the hotline, we recognise that its creation is to a fair extent an indictment on the hundreds of ANC councillors who have failed to service ratepayers in the first place,” noted Mcgluwa.
“Had these councillors executed their responsibilities properly in the first place, there would have been no need to spend over R4 million for this project,” Mcgluwa added.
“Sadly, in its current form, the hotline will mostly benefit only those in the urban areas and will offer no hope to the rural poor, who bear the brunt of government's poor service delivery record, because it will only be toll-free from landlines.”
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