Neville Ndlala, the spokesperson for the GTM, responded to this video: “I understand the frustration of the customers. There will always be these frustrations especially during the rainy season since we are using overhead powerlines. “These power lines run through various farmlands where big trees grow that fall onto our network.
“Due to the length of the network, it takes time to locate the exact point of where a problem is,” Ndlala added that they try hard to make sure that the call centre is operational so that the residents of Tzaneen can be informed. “We are a bit concerned about the behaviour of the customer that entered the building (which is very strategic), it is a power station which is the engine of the municipality in terms of electricity,” Ndlala said.
“The public is not supposed to be in the building. But we understand the frustration when you call the call centre, which is located inside the power station. “People struggle to get a hold of the power station due to a high volume of calls coming in,” Ndlala explained. “We will have to find a way to communicate with customers.
“I’ll try my best to find a way so that when these faults occur, we are able to share messages with our customers through platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp and/or any other method that can get information to customers instantaneously.
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During the rainy season we do have a challenge,” Ndlala said. “When you look at the video, the employee that is being recorded is one of our most hardworking, friendly, customer-orientated officials and you can see he has two phones in his hands, on the one call he has one of our customers and on the other call is one of his seniors. You can see he is already very busy with an impatient customer,” Ndlala said regarding the video.
“Sometimes it is difficult and demoralising for our employees who do their best and go beyond the call of duty and then are you get an instance like this where they are made out as if they do not know what they are doing,” said Ndlala. “The call centre is filled with dedicated and hardworking employees,” stated Ndlala.
“With high call volumes, you will have to hold for a few minutes, even if you call private company. I think people can understand that during power disruptions there is a high number of calls,” Ndlala added. “When a fault is reported, a standby team of electricians and assistants is dispatched.
They are always ready to go into the battlefield so that our customers do not suffer long periods of outages. “With the season and circumstances beyond our control, we get these kinds of situations where customers do not have electricity for extended periods,” he concluded.
