Woman In South Africa Amazed At Speaking To President

A woman in South Africa found herself speaking to the nation’s president when she called up a new anti-corruption hotline. She phoned to complain about the treatment she had received at a magistrate’s court where she had gone to get her widows’ pension.

To her amazement, found herself speaking to South African President Jacob Zuma. A report from the BBC said the woman was crying as she explained — Unknowingly, it turned out — to the president that she had been visiting that office since 2006.

Zuma only told her who he was 10 minutes into the conversation. He assured her the matter would be quickly seen to.

Presidential spokesman Vusi Mona said Zuma had been ”moved” by the woman’s call and urged the consultants in the new call centre to show empathy to callers, something rarely seen in South Africa.

The free hotline was launched today with the local number 17737. Mona said about 7,300 calls were received from unhappy citizens.

Local government in South Africa has suffered from vast corruption and overspending as well as mismanagement and many townships dwellers have gone on the rampage to protest poor or non-existent delivery of water, sewerage or other services.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomed Zuma’s initiative, indicating this would be a first step in making sure that public servants would be held accountable to their constituents.

Athol Trollip, M.P., said the effectiveness of the new service would be shown by what actions are taken against those reported to the new hotline.