Civil servants silenced

2003-02-04 10:38

Alet Rademeyer

Pretoria - Civil servants working in the former TPA building here are desperate because they have not been able to make any phone calls for the past two weeks.

The building houses the Gauteng departments of education, transport and public works, sport and recreation and housing and health.

Employees said on Monday they could not function properly under present conditions.

One official said: "We can't sit here all day, waiting for people to phone us. Everything is collapsing."

Blame for the chaotic situation is being heaped on the transport and public works department (PWD) which owns the building. They are responsible for telephone and water and electricity bills.

Officials working for education department district offices say they cannot make calls to any schools. The health department can't contact provincial pharmacies to enquire about stock replenishments.

Initially, it was said the lack of communications was a result of the ancient, broken-down telephone exchange that could no longer be repaired.

On Monday, it was said calls could not be made because the phone account, which runs into thousands of rands, had not been paid.

An education department section received a letter last year demanding they pay a telephone bill for R180&nsbp;000. They refused and called for a specified account to check the number of calls for which they were being charged.

The total telephone bill is unknown.

Sizwe Matshikiza, spokesperson for Gauteng transport and public works MEC Khabisi Msounkuthu, says it is an "administrative problem".

He said it was a "small hitch" in the department's attempts to improve services.

- Beeld