The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) is working on a variety of other channels for the public to report service delivery issues.
Some of the channels the municipality hopes to include is a mobile app and SMS capability to lower the cost barrier.
This comes after the DA’s PR Councillor for Phomolong, Clr Allan Sauls, said many poorer residents are unable to access this service because callers are required to pay for the calls they make to the call centre, as the number is not a toll-free number.
“The reality is that many community members rely on cellular phones to communicate. An example is the Phomolong community, who largely make use of cellular phones,” said Clr Sauls.
Clr Sauls said while the option to log queries is also available online through the municipality’s website, many poor residents cannot afford to log service delivery calls with the call centre as they do not have access to the internet.
He said it was clear that the MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Queen Duba, was out of touch with reality when she said the Ekurhuleni call centre was operating efficiently and compared favourably to international best practice and private sector companies’ call centres.
The EMM’s spokesperson, Mr Themba Gadebe said, “We have other self-service channels like the EMM website (www.ekurhuleni.gov.za), or they can send an email directly to callcentre@ekurhuleni.gov.za.”
