While there has been a decrease in the number of attempts it takes to reach an operator at the Presidential Hotline, the improvement is slight. Out of 51 connected calls only 6 were answered by an operator. All in all, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has spent close to 13 hours (749 minutes) trying to reach the presidential hotline over the past five weeks. As it undertook to do when President Jacob Zuma first launched the initiative, the DA has tried to use the hotline to register a series of serious complaints with the Presidency, and has heeded the presidency's call to pursue other avenues first. The results of the DA's attempts are:
• In five weeks we have been able to register five complaints. We have reference numbers for two of them, despite repeated promises that they will be sent through to us. The lack of a reference number suggests the complaint has not been properly registered and thus cannot be tracked and the response to it gauged.
• Outside of those four complaints, the DA has phoned the hotline a total of 51 times, with only 6 calls reaching an operator. These 51 calls translate into 749 minutes on hold; or 12 hours, 48 minutes.
• The first complaint registered by the DA, regarding the appointment of Paul Ngobeni, was lost in the system and had to be re-registered. The reference number is 1952293 and we will be following up on the progress on this case in a month's time.
A full summary of all the DA's calls, to date, follows below this statement. At protests in impoverished Mpumalanga townships, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protestors, wounding several who were demanding better sanitation, electricity and housing. When asked how else the protestors should make their problems known, Zuma's spokesman Vincent Magwenya stated: "There are avenues available to communities to engage government on challenges they face in service delivery and we encourage communities to use the presidential hotline." If the hotline is not an effective tool to register complaints, and when complaints eventually get registered they are still not addressed, how can citizens wanting better service delivery be expected to hold for hours, knowing that they are wasting their time? We will continue to report back on the situation.
DATE NATURE OF COMPLAINT REGISTERED No. OF CONNECTED CALLS UNANSWERED BEFORE COMPLAINT REGISTERED No. OF MINUTES ON HOLD

14.09.2009 Appointment of Paul Ngobeni 6 connected 96 minutes
Unfinished work on N2 Gateway 2 connected 32 minutes
15.09.2009 No answer 12 connected 192 minutes
16.09.2009 Corruption in Local Municipality 1 connected 16 minutes
Bribery at Nyanga Refugee Centre 2 connected 32 minutes
17.09.2009 No answer 5 connected 30 minutes
21.09.2009 No answer 1 connected 6 minutes
22.09.2009 No answer 1 connected 6 minutes
23.09.2009 No answer 1 connected 6 minutes
24.09.2009 No answer 1 connected 6 minutes
25.09.2009 No answer 1 connected 6 minutes
28.09.2009 No answer 2 connected 32 minutes
30.09.2009 No answer 3 connected 48 minutes
01.10.2009 No answer 4 connected 64 minutes
05.10.2009 No answer 2 connected 32 minutes
06.10.2009 No answer 1 connected 16 minutes
07.10.2009 No answer 2 connected 21 minutes
08.10.2009 Received reference number for 2nd complaint 1 connected 16 minutes holding, 20 minutes to process call
12.10.2009 Re-logged: Investigate appointment of Paul Ngobeni. Referred to a PLO (presidents liaison officer) 1 connected 30 minutes to process call
12.10.2009 Reported Nyami Booi,chairman of the parliamentary defence portfolio committee, for taking R92000 in travel money not entitled to him. 1 connected 30 minutes to process call
15.10.2009 No answer 1 connected 12 minutes

TOTALS 51 connected calls 749 minutes
(12 hours)