Dear Editor,
Once again, residents’ taps in .
For many, it has been nearly a week without water and homeowners are beginning to wonder whether they will have reliable water services ever again, as interruptions like these have become a regular occurrence since September 2017.
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To be fair, we once managed to log a fault and get in touch with Ugu District Municipality’s call centre and they did come out to help and we received follow-up calls. Tankers have also been sent to relieve areas that have been without water for days.
But the biggest problem is actually getting through to someone at the call centre.
Many residents have begun to wonder if anyone actually works at the call centre because calls remained unanswered for 20 to 30 minutes, and when one leaves a message, as suggested by the automated recording, no one ever calls back within the two hour period as stated.
We also tried Ugu’s sms number: 44751, where one immediately receives an automated response saying: ‘Ugu Water’ will send a follow-up sms with a reference number – but none of us has been this lucky.
It was only after calling Ugu main office’s reception phone number and begging to speak to an actual person instead of being transferred back to the call centre that we finally got some assistance. A lovely woman named Mthaa helped me log my fault and called me back with a reference number.
But you can imagine our frustration when Ugu’s call centre told Councillor Noah Cele that this was the first they’d heard of the problem, five days later. It was not for lack of trying!
There is something terribly wrong with the call centre, making communication with the municipality virtually impossible and leaving residents stranded without services or information. Something has to be done and fast. It is a legislated requirement that municipalities have open communication channels with their residents and Ugu is failing miserably in this respect.
Amanda Forsythe
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