Zuma's hotline needs more staff

2010-03-17 21:02

Pretoria - More staff are needed for the presidential call centre to ensure that all complaints are attended to, a parliamentary multi-party delegation said on Wednesday.

This was after chief whips of various political parties visited the presidential call centres in the Union Buildings and the State Information and Technology Centre (Seta) offices in Centurion. Seta is contracted to help government.

"We are amazed that the president was able to work on this initiative speedily. It gives the presidency a distinctive character but the only issue was the capacity," said ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga.

He said they would recommend to Parliament the need to increase capacity.

He acknowledged that service delivery backlogs in the country were huge.

Capacity was affected by a tight budget.

"We are working on a cheap budget," said Seta chairperson Zodwa Manase, who asked the delegation to help the organisation access funds.

"The more capacity we have, the more calls we will be able to take and more people will be helped."

The hotline was opened on October 27 2009. There had been numerous complaints about dropped calls and the time it took for calls to be answered.

Presidency spokesperson Vusi Mona said complaints about the call centre's service were being addressed, adding that there was 90% resolution rate compared to other government departments.

- SAPA