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As the Democratic Alliance (DA) continues to monitor the quality of service provided by the Presidential Hotline it appears the many problems surrounding the hotline have still not been adequately dealt with. Instead new problems continue to arise which expose the hotline as yet another superficial system that was poorly planned and designed, and is unable to effectively deal with the concerns of ordinary South Africans. Our latest dealings with the hotline have revealed the following problems: False Information In response to a complaint about the fact that, since 2006, no houses had been built on the concrete slabs cast in Motwaneng village in Limpopo (see photo below), we received an email from the Department of Human Settlements to say that our complaint had "been resolved". (In other words, in just two days the DoHS had supposedly built some 20 houses.) In response to this, the DA decided to revisit the village to see if our complaint really had been resolved. It had not (see second photo below). Nothing had changed. The information provided by the Department of Human Settlements was false. The government made no effort to address the problem and, worse still, simply made up a complete fabrication in trying to suggest the situation had been dealt with. So much for the "responsiveness" of the Presidential Hotline. Complaints referred to the wrong government departments The Department of Transport phoned the DA this week requesting information on a complaint we had supposedly registered so that they could deal with it. Unfortunately, we never registered a complaint about anything to do with the Department of Transport. The department official could not tell us which of our complaints had been referred to her department by the hotline and after we informed her that none of our complaints were transport-related she conceded that there was obviously an error on the part of her department and the hotline's. She boldly stated that the fact that she had called us constituted "proof that government was working on our problems." More like proof the government has no idea what it's doing. None of our complaints have actually been resolved The DA recently phoned the hotline and requested an update on the status and progress made with all the complaints we had registered. The information provided by the hotline operator reveals that none of our complaints have been adequately dealt with. A status report of all our complaints follows below this statement (see Annexure 2) Firstly, we found that two of our complaints on unfinished work on the N2 Gateway project and bribery at the Nyanga Refugee centre were never actually registered and have not been issued reference numbers to date. Secondly, there appears to be no sense of urgency on the part of government departments to resolve complaints referred to them by the hotline. By way of illustration, in September, the DA reported to the presidential hotline that recently appointed adviser to the department Paul Ngobeni was a fugitive from justice and was wanted in the United States. This week the department of Defence confirmed in a parliamentary reply that Dr Ngobeni was still "employed in the Department of Defence and Military Veterans as a Special Adviser (Part-time) to the Minister". Apart from the hotline having recorded that our complaint was "under investigation", there is no indication that this is investigation is in fact taking place. Conclusion All these problems fly in the face of President Zuma's recent response to an oral question in the National Assembly that "The hotline is an important part of our effort to improve the accessibility, responsiveness and transparency of government." Quite the opposite is true: it is inaccessible, unresponsive and while transparent, all it has revealed is that it is completely dysfunctional. The DA can report without fear of contradiction that, despite having laid some eight serious and fundamental problems, that range from corruption to a failure to deliver services, over a period of three months, to date the hotline has not made one iota of difference in any respect. Media Enquiries: Athol Trollip MP - 082 417 9254 Jo Lennox - 082 780 0242 Annexure 1: Photo Content Left: 19 October - photos of concrete slabs at Motwaneng village from Parliament for the People visit Right: 11 November - recent photos of concrete slabs at Motwaneng village These photos can be viewed and downloaded (in high resolution) via the DA Media Centre: http://www.damediacentre.co.za/home/main.php?g2_itemId=2482 <http://www.mailfire.co.za/link/QlJVTj0xMzU3MCZMSUQ9NTMwMjImU0lEPTEwMTk1MzY=.aspx> Annexure 2: Status report of DA complaints registered with the Presidential Hotline
Complaint Registration date Follow-up dates Time lapsed since registration Status Reference no.
Appointment of Paul Ngobeni - fugitive in USA 14.09.09 / 12.10.09 27.10.09 / 11.11.09 / 20.11. 09 2 months Referred by Presidential Liaison Officer (PLO) to dept. of Defence. Under investigation 1952293
Unfinished work at N2 Gateway Project 14.09.09 11.11.09 2 months Not on system No reference no
Corruption in local municipality 16.09.09 / 20.11.09 2 months System indicated closed/ resolved. Case had to be re-opened because there are no details on how the case was resolved. New reference number given. Under investigation 1845413 / 2504710
Bribery at Nyanga 16.09.09 2 months Not on system No reference no.
Nyami Booi, chariperson of parliamentary defence portfolio committee - took R92000 travel money not entitled to him 12.10.09 11.11.09 / 20.11.09 1 month PLO referred matter to dept. of Defence. Under investigation 1952438 - given 11.11.09 upon request
Unfinished urban RDP housing project, Mokopane, Limpopo 26.10.09 11.11.09 / 20.11.09 2 weeks PLO referred matter to local Mogalakwena municipality. Under investigation 2086072
Unfinished RDP housing project in Motwaneng village, Limpopo 27.10.09 11.11.09 / 20.11.09 2 weeks System indicates resolved. Request for clarification of resolution was referred to dept. of Human Settlement. Still waiting for dept to contact us. Limpopo local government investigating 2099510
Unfinished RDP housing project in Makurung Village, Limpopo 28.10.09 11.11.09 / 20.11.09 2 weeks System indicates resolved. Request for clarification of resolution was referred to dept. of Human Settlement. Still waiting for dept to contact us. Limpopo local government investigating 2118478

Annexure 3: Summary of DA calls to Presidential Hotline

The DA has spent close to 18 hours (1070 minutes) trying to reach the Presidential Hotline in the 10 weeks since its inception and the average number of minutes we are put on hold before an operator answers our call remains around 15 minutes.

WEEK NATURE OF COMPLAINT REGISTERED PER WEEK No. OF CONNECTED CALLS UNANSWERED BEFORE COMPLAINT REGISTERED No. OF MINUTES ON HOLD
Week 1 (14-18.09.09) Appointment of Paul Ngobeni; Unfinished work on N2 Gateway; No answer; Corruption in Local Municipality; Bribery at Nyanga Refugee Centre 28 connected 398 minutes
Week 2 (21-25.09.09 No answer 5 connected 30 minutes
Week 3 (28.09.- 01.10.09) No answer 9 connected 144 minutes
Week 4 (05-9.10.2009) No answer; reference no 6 connected 105 minutes
Week 5 (12-16.10.2009) Re-logged appointment of Paul Ngobeni; Nyami Booi, chairman of the parliamentary defence portfolio committee, for taking R92000 in travel money not entitled to him. Referred to a PLO (presidents liaison officer) 3 connected 72 minutes
Week 6 (26-30.10.2009) Unfinished urban RDP housing project in Mokopane, Makurung & Motwaneng, Limpopo; follow-up Paul Ngobeni case; follow-up on email communication 15 connected 193 minutes
Week 7 (2-6.11.2009) Follow-up on email communication; no water supply at Pelonomi hospital, Free State 2 connected 45 minutes
Week 9 (9-13.11.2009 Corruption and fraud allegations against RTMC CEO; Tender irregularities in dept of Transport 3 connected 58 minutes
Week 10 (16-20.11.2009) Follow up on status of registered complaints 1 connected 25 minutes
TOTALS 72 connected calls 1070 minutes (17.8 hours)