The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Ms Thembi Siweya, MP will visit the Presidential Hotline to monitor its effectiveness in dealing with COVID-19 related issues and its contribution in facilitating citizen-government engagement. The NDP highlights citizen-government engagement as a fundamental bedrock of any democracy and advocates that it should be promoted to ensure accountability in the state.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for diverse platforms to facilitate citizen-government engagement. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, various platforms have been initiated and used to facilitate citizen-government engagement and to mobilise society to work together in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. These platforms include the introduction of various call centres to provide relevant information to the public in relation to COVID-19, guide on medical issues, socio-economic relief programmes, and processes to report gender based violence, crime and corruption.
The Presidential Hotline has been enlisted as one of the call centres that serve to address COVID-19 related enquiries from the public. In the recent past, a total of 1470 calls were logged onto the Presidential Hotline system and out of them 1365 (92,8%) of the cases were related to the pandemic.
Members of the media are therefore invited as follows:
Visit to the Presidential Hotline
Date: 15 May 2020
Venue: 1108 John Vorster Dr, Brakfontein, Centurion, Pretoria
Time: 09h00
NB: The Deputy Minister, will be available for onsite interviews after the program
For confirmation, please contact Ms Mathapelo Kgakwa on 0827648295 or email Mathapelo@dpme.gov.za
For enquiries, please contact Mr Lawrence Ngoveni on 0828243060 or email Lawrence.ngoveni@dpme.gov.za
