Provincial hotline leads to solving of 1 717 cases

The Premier’s Hotline has, since it was established in April 2011 received 7 329 calls of which 1 798 incidents were reported and 1 717 resolved. Provincial Government Spokesperson Phuti Seloba said in a statement that about 81 cases are still outstanding and majority of them were referred to the national department for resolution.
He further said the Premier’s hotline is to ensure easier access to Stan Mathabatha’s office and all the government departments. He added that the initiative aims amongst others to promote caring government to the citizens, a government that is responsive, interactive and effective in dealing with complains.
“The complaints are in areas of electricity, housing, water, sanitation, service provider’s payments, maladministration, corruption, employment, identity documents, tender fraud, social grants and road maintenance. In terms of the total incidents reports from April 2011 to February 2017, the majority of these cases, namely 825, are for provincial departments with Capricorn district having the highest number of incidents reports amongst the five districts,” explained Seloba.
He further said a total of 131 incidents reports were allocated to national departments. Capricorn district tops the list with 274 cases reported, Mopani is second with 163 cases, Vhembe has 148, Sekhukhune 141 and Waterberg district 116 cases.
Seloba said, “The Premier’s Hotline has enabled government officials to work faster, harder and smarter to respond to the needs of the people. The hotline assists Government to strengthen a good working relationship with members of the public and to ensure clean governance and root out corruption. Through the hotline Government has improved services, accelerated service delivery to the people, rooted out corruption in the government departments and municipalities and also ensured that tender fraud in various government departments is reported.”
He further said Premier Stan Mathabatha has made a commitment that the Hotline Report should serve in an Executive Council Meeting on a monthly basis so that it can intervene on issues that need immediate intervention.
The hotline operates from Monday to Friday, 06:00 to 22:00 and operators serve callers in English, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Xitsonga, Tshivenda and IsiNdebele.