Gauteng hotline set to deliver

"This means that Gauteng residents are in dire need of direct contact with their government at provincial level," she said, adding that the Gauteng Premier's Hotline "will enable residents to escalate matters quite easily."

The hotline focuses on improving service delivery by providing accurate and reliable information on all services offered by government to Gauteng residents, Mokonyane explained. It will provide callers with the means to voice their complaints, recommendations and opinions. The system has been running in test mode since March last year, with more than 95 000 calls received and handled. "It is worth noting" Mokonyane said, "that during this period, the hotline [... handled issues such as ...] housing, electricity cut-off and installation, billing system across municipalities, fraud and corruption, customer service, long queues in frontline desks, request for tar roads and maintenance thereof, and crime-related matters."

The Gauteng Premier promised that, with 70 trained agents in attendance, callers will receive a response from call centre agents within 72 hours. She added that feedback received since during the test period indicates reasonable satisfaction levels among the callers. Of the total calls logged with the premier's hotline, she said, 70% have been resolved. About 30% were resolved at departmental and municipal level.

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