Since the establishment of the presidency hotline on 14 September 2009, it has assisted with the successful investigation of 235 government officials which have been found guilty of misconduct.

Of these cases, 35 officials were suspended and 120 were given final written warnings.  80 officials were dismissed due to the severity of their misconduct. A total of R100 million was recovered from perpetrators guilty of fraud.

The hotline can be used by anyone to report cases of corruption and dishonesty of government officials.  However getting through to the Presidential hotline is still a challenge, with an average of only 33% of calls being referred to national departments for resolution.In the first month of operation, only 12% of the calls opened for provincial response were resolved, 26% of calls in October and 31% in November. These figures suggest that government is working hard to improve their system and hopefully it will continue to grow in the future.

There are however several problems with the hotline which need to be highlighted, such as the fact that complaints about departments are simply referred back to the source of the problem. No deadlines or sanctions can be enforced and as a result, some complaints are not being properly dealt with.

To improve the response from departments and provinces to hotline complaints, President Jacob Zuma has asked all Ministers to draw up turnaround strategies that will help improve the efficiency of the system.  The Presidency is also exploring new media, such as mobile technology to be used in conjunction with the hotline in future.

President Jacob Zuma said government has started working on a green paper on cooperative governance. The paper is due for submission for comments by February 2011. This paper will strengthen South Africa’s governance and fight against corruption.

Source: SA Good News; Engineering News. Image Source: Unodc.org