Pretoria - The Presidential Hotline, which turns one today, continues to change the lives of ordinary citizens, while making government more accessible.
One of the satisfied citizens is Fikile Manzini of Mpumalanga, who raised concerns about the lack of water in Pienaar, Kwa-Msogwaba and the construction of RDP houses in her area. The local municipality, Mbombela, intervened and the area now has water and the building of Manzini's house has been completed.
Another happy citizen is Lynette Temlett, who had been struggling to get the subdivision of her plot at Ruimsig in Roodepoort registered. She has since written a letter of appreciation thanking the Presidential Hotline for helping with the registration.
Others include service providers who were owed money by municipalities and have now received refunds. The municipalities include Matlosana Municipality in North West, Matjhabeng Municipality and Ngwathe Municipality in the Free State and Emakhazeni Municipality in Mpumalanga.
President Jacob Zuma has thanked the public who took their time to call the Hotline and relate their enquiries. "We thank those who report anti-corruption allegations as well; they will help us in our campaign to ensure clean governance and to root out corruption in the public service."
The Presidential Hotline was launched on 14 September as part of government's drive to change the way it works. The Hotline, which was established by Zuma to ensure easier access to the Presidency and government, resolves about 4 00 cases per week -- which puts the resolution of all complaints to a total of 30 540, Zuma's office said on Tuesday.
Most of the complaints are around housing, unemployment, water and electricity problems. However, one major challenge of dealing with the needs of the public was to obtain quicker responses from government departments and provinces.
President Zuma said he was aware of some of the frustrations members of the public were experiencing in their effort to use the hotline.
Zuma said his office is working on improving the line to make it accessible to all people. "We will continue working to improve this service as it is clearly a valuable tool in keeping government in touch, and also to train public servants to take members of the public seriously when they raise issues and enquiries," said President Zuma.
To ensure that people get rapid response on their complaints, the President decided to make Directors-General responsible for resolving the queries and complaints in their departments. This is in addition to the assessment that will look at challenges, successes and opportunities to improve the Hotline.
The review, which will be conducted by the Ministry of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, will inform the interventions that need to be introduced to make the hotline more effective.
