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Joe Mcgluwa, the ID National Organiser, has slammed the delay in the launch of the Presidential Hotline, saying ‘the delay flies in the face of the Minister in the Presidency's assurance to the Independent Democrats and the nation that it would start operating on Tuesday 1 September.'

The Minister in the Presidency was responding to a question [below] from the ID Member of Parliament for written reply, which was asked by Mcgluwa on 3 July and answered by the Minister on 6 August.

‘The fact that when the media arrived on Tuesday the furniture for the call centre had not yet arrived does not give us much faith in the project's success,' Mr Mcgluwa says.

‘For now it looks like the Hotline will be launched later this month - one month is a long time when it comes to service delivery. This kind of incompetency relating to an exercise which was designed to improve service delivery is extremely worrying.

‘While we welcome the establishment of the Hotline, we must also recognize that its creation is to a fair extent an indictment on the hundreds of ANC Councillors who have failed to service ratepayers properly in the first place,' says Mcgluwa.

Mcgluwa reiterated his concern that ‘in its current form the Hotline will mostly benefit only those in the urban areas and will offer no hope to the rural poor, who bear the brunt of Government's poor service delivery record, because it will only be toll free from landlines.

‘Government will also need to embark on an extensive communication campaign on the purpose of the Hotline to ensure that its establishment achieves the intended outcomes,' says Mcgluwa.