Publications
Partners
While some 10111 emergency call centres around the Eastern Cape have failed to answer calls, abandoned answered calls, and were unable to give telephonic help to callers, some of the call centres don’t have systems in place to measure any of the above.
These challenges have been in place between the 2021/2022 and the 2023/2024 financial years.
This was contained in a response by community safety MEC, Xolile Nqatha, to questions by DA MPL Bobby Stevenson.
The questions related to Komani, Gqeberha, East London, and Mthatha.
In Komani and Mthatha there are no systems in place to measure abandoned calls while in Gqeberha 57 455 calls were abandoned and 22 505 in East London.
This covers the beginning of the 2023/2024 financial year up to February 15.
Looking at dropped calls, in Gqeberha 110 493 calls were dropped in the 2021/2022 financial year and 99 610 in 2022/2023.
For East London, dropped calls amounted to 44 600 in 2021/2022 and 27 712 in 2022/2023.
“No active system in place. The fault is reported to TMS and we await repairs,” this was the same response for Mthatha for the financial years 2021/2022, 2022/2023, and 2023/2024 until February 15.
Regarding Komani for the same financial years: “No system in place. The matter was reported and TMS was busy with a process to install the CISCO system at the Army Base.”
Buffalo City Metro (BCM) received 248 486, 248 612, and 289 225 calls for the three financial years respectively.
However, Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) once again topped the list with 527 312, 451 242, and 359 132 for the same period.
Mthatha once again, had no systems in place.
Instances of cases not being attended to due to the unavailability of vans in BCM were reported as one in 2021/22 and 2022/23 and three in 2023/24.
No cases were reported in NMB and only one in Mthatha during the 2023/24 financial year.
“The 10111 call centres, meant to assist those in dire need, are themselves in crisis, and despite the problem being brought to the MEC of Community Safety Xolile Nqatha’s attention two years ago, there has been little improvement. Vulnerable citizens have been abandoned in their time of need, forced to face fear, violence, or crisis alone and fend for themselves because their calls for help are simply being left unanswered. When someone is beating down the door to break in, SAPS needs to respond,” Stevenson said.
He said SAPS must urgently revamp its current systems dedicated to 10111, especially since it claims to have a surplus of personnel.
The 10111 number is for emergencies and, at the very least, requires a police response, he said.
MEC Nqatha’s spokesperson Makhaya Komisa had not responded to questions by the deadline.
