SA 'the best' for call centres

SA 'the best' for call centres News24/fin24
The part I like about it is this one line

But some investors are deterred by high telecom tariffs due to government tardiness on liberalising the industry

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Oh well more jobs the silly DoC are resposible for not getting the people they serve

yeah, Mauritius is better in terms of overall cost and quality of voice. South African call centres pay their agents peanuts to try and stay competitive, because they have little to no other ways of decreasing costs - including telecoms.

"Best" is obviously used figuratively here... He He! Perhaps they mean cheapest - or maybe best at not helping. Vodacom being a prime example.

Just show how many billions of rands have been lost due to Poison Ivy. South Africa could have been the world's leading call centre destination already, if it weren't for our high phone costs.

If the honourable minister were in the private sector, she would have lost her job 1000 times over.

Yep - it's the sad truth.

Here in the UK, they would far rather use the language skills of South Africans than those of India, but cost is what sends them to India.

There's actually been a backlash against foreign call centres because they simply don't deliver - the average employee on the other side of the phone just doesn't have the cultural knowledge to really assist.

South Africa, on the other hand, has a culture similar enough to make it a better solution and in general, the majority of people in the UK can understand a South African english accent far better (probably because there's so many bloomin' saffas here - hehe )

The sheer arrogance of Ivy is staggering, not to mention the complete and utter ineptitude in how she has conducted herself.

She really needs to be taken down a few pegs, all hot air and no action, self important but useless.

The way I see it is that Ivy has more interest in feeding from her pigs trough of minister benefits than actually providing the service she is supposed to, as a civil servant to the SA people.

I'd also bet that she hires someone to write her speeches.

Someone needs to catch this useless minister unaware, really grill her - unfortunately, that type of journalism seems to be totally dead in South Africa.

If she was over here in the UK, the press would rip her to shreds in five minutes.

bb_matt said:

Someone needs to catch this useless minister unaware, really grill her - unfortunately, that type of journalism seems to be totally dead in South Africa.

If she was over here in the UK, the press would rip her to shreds in five minutes.

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Too true! I think they are only too aware of their failings. This is why they speak through a designated spokesperson, hardly ever appear on TV, refuse interviews and never respond to mail & refuse to answer direct questions in parliament. It may also be a cultural thing - tribal honorifics i.e. a lofty MP is too important to speak to the ever humble ordinary citizen.

WatchDog said:

Too true! I think they are only too aware of their failings. This is why they speak through a designated spokesperson, hardly ever appear on TV, refuse interviews and never respond to mail & refuse to answer direct questions in parliament. It may also be a cultural thing - tribal honorifics i.e. a lofty MP is too important to speak to the ever humble ordinary citizen.

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Indeed.

That is one thing that gives me some faith in those who are in power in the UK - although the media is guilty of hounding people, it also serves the purpose of being the voice of the people (although that's an entire other scary perspective)

Nobody in the UK is safe from scrutiny - you can view that any way you wish, there are many worries that the press is out of control - however, at least we have that alternative voice and a very powerful one it is too.

Press freedom is of vital importance to everyone and aggressive investigative journalism has a very valid place.

South Africa is in short supply of a truly aggressive free press - I'd say they've got lazy.

Someone needs to give SA journalism a swift kick in the pants to get the ball rolling, before it's too late - before the dominant media is like Zimbabwe - state sanctioned ...

Ministers like Ivy need to be bought to book before they do too much damage due to failure to do the job they are supposed to do.

The more I think about it, the more worried I am about the future of SA - if a minister of such massive ineptitude can give speech after speech and not actually do anything, there's something really stinky about the whole government.

They call it "lip service" -

SA Journalists, time to take up arms, and rid SA of this incompetent buffoon.

SA afraid to speak out

Actually, I think that this goes beyond the press.

Financial Mail recently did a survey of business leaders thought of Zuma as president (http://free.financialmail.co.za/06/0519/cover/coverstory.htm). The overwhelming fact that came out is business feared that if it said anything detrimental, it could prejudice itself in the future. On top of this, people are afraid (or disenchanted) of speaking out against the government, for fear of being called a racist (remember, this could isolate the press or business from a very large part of its population). So they remain quiet.

Case in question: Remember Tony Trahar stating that one of the risks in South Africa was political risk and Mbeki publicly lashing out at him. http://www.suntimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/business/business1094828703.aspx

The point is, educated South Africans, both black and white are afraid to speak out against the government.