Will Zuma’s toll-free line be free?
President Jacob Zuma recently announced that he will establish a toll-free telephone line to the presidency, allowing citizens to contact his office directly and lodge complaints.
While this is something which is likely to be welcomed by South Africans, technical details about this planned toll-free line remain sketchy. One of the biggest questions is whether calls from all telecoms providers will be free.
South African telecoms operators seem to have been caught off-guard by Zuma’s promise of a free hotline for South Africans to lodge complaints.
MTN, Cell C and Neotel were all asked whether the can confirm that calls from their network to the new Zuma toll-free line will in fact be free, but they could not provide feedback by the time of publication.
Unless this delay is due to internal communications problems, it may well be an indication that they are not certain whether they will provide these calls free of charge.
In response to whether calls from a Telkom line will be free, the fixed line provider said that it will evaluate all aspects regarding the provisioning of such a service upon receipt of a formal request.
Vodacom said that they welcome the initiative, “and look forward to meeting with the Presidency to ascertain what the requirements are.”
MyBroadband tried to get feedback from the Presidency about the new planned toll-free line, but calls to its communications department in Pretoria were not answered. MyBroadband did get hold of a media liaison officer on his mobile number, but was referred to the presidential spokesperson who did not answer his phone.
Toll-free presidency line – give your views
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