Non-Functioning Call Centre Wreaking Havoc for Service Delivery across Ekurhuleni
by Ald Tania Campbell — DA Leader in Ekurhuleni
and Cllr Pieter Henning — DA Councillor in Ekurhuleni
Date: 02 November 2020
Release: Immediate
Type: Media Statement
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni, has put the ANC-led City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) on terms regarding its non-operational Call Centre as residents continue to struggle to log service delivery issues across the Metro.
DA councillors have been working tirelessly to assist residents who are struggling to log their complaints and outages. Often the call centre line goes unanswered, adding to the resident’s frustration who have to endure extended power outages and burst water pipes.
The ANC appointed Executive Mayor, Cllr Mzwandile Masina’s, Siyaqhuba Mayoral outreach programme aims to bring solutions to communities. But this has been a dismal failure with numerous departments failing to resolve their queries within their set targets. Again, highlighting the incompetence of the ANC-metro.
The high levels of non-compliance is appalling. This coming from a world-class city, with an R35 billion annual turnover!
The primary call centre issue is that the City has one call centre situated in Bedfordview. If the phone line cable goes down, for any reason, then, not a single individual of Ekurhuleni’s roughly 3.4 million population will be unable to log a fault.
In addition, the newly launched CoE App is hardly functional and residents have been requested to remain patient regarding the delay in service delivery. This results in irritated communities, who cannot log an issue or fault with the City, and end up contacting their councillor demanding answers as to why the ANC-led City is failing them.
The CoE also boasts a costly SMS service, which is supposed to be utilised to update residents on restoration times. Sadly, this service is also hardly functional and residents complain that they are not regularly kept up-to-date by the failing ANC-run City.
The ANC-government in Ekurhuleni has undertaken numerous ‘best-practice’ visits to other cities in various countries, in an effort to learn how to roll-out the best functionality of the Call Centre.
Instead, perhaps the inefficient ANC-coalition in Ekurhuleni should visit the DA-run City of Cape Town, where the Call Centre is indeed a World-Class operation and monitored effectively. Deadlines and turnaround times are put in place to ensure best minimum standards are reached. This results in public value-based service delivery with the residents of Cape Town feeling the difference of a caring DA government.
The DA will continue to force the uncaring ANC-government to put measures in place to get a functioning Call Centre with an App that actually works. The people of Ekurhuleni deserve better. It’s hard enough that they must endure non-delivery of services and regular water and power outages. But it is an utter disgrace that residents cannot even log the complaint via the call centre or the App.
Ald Tania Campbell
DA Leader in Ekurhuleni
Cllr Pieter Henning
DA Councillor in Ekurhuleni
