Presidential Hotline
The Presidential Hotline marks its 2nd year anniversary
In its second year of operation, the Presidential Hotline has achieved a resounding 75% case resolution rate – once again demonstrating that the hotline had been well received and utilized by the larger populace.
To give testimony that helpless members of the public have been longing for a platform to communicate their concerns and frustrations about how they were treated when seeking help from different tiers of government, the Presidential Hotline had registered over 4000 valid queries in the first week of operation in September 2009. This indicated that this service was long overdue.
On 14 September, two years ago, President Jacob Zuma received the first call from a member of the public, a widow from Mount Frere, in the Eastern Cape. The caller had complained about a delay in the payment of her husband’s pension pay-out.
Since then the Presidential Hotline has received a large number of calls which to date amounts to 111,751 valid queries. Of these queries, a staggering 84 700 of the cases have been attended to and resolved, there are some in our country who still face quite a number of service delivery challenges.
At the
launch of the Presidential Hotline, President Zuma said the aim of the Presidential
Hotline is to increase the participation of the public in their government.
The
Presidential Hotline is instrumental in defining a government that understands
the needs of its people and responds faster to those needs. The initiative does
not ask if government will or is able to provide the services. It focuses on
how government should improve the service by working faster and smarter.
In its second year anniversary, the Presidential Hotline continues to support measures in place to improve service delivery through strengthening government planning and improvement of monitoring and evaluation.
Of all the calls logged 70% are complaints, 27% are enquiries, 1.8% are suggestions and compliments. A resolution rate of 75% by the Presidential Hotline marks the highlight in our government in responding to the need of our people and transforming public service culture.
