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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Vodacom said that they welcome the initiative, “and look forward to meeting with the Presidency to ascertain what the requirements are.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n