Chairperson, on 6 September 2006, the DA pointed out for the first time that the extraordinarily expensive experiment, the 10111 call centres, was an unutterable failure. Naturally, because the ANC is convinced that any criticism of its performance is an attack on its very foundations, the information and the facts put forward by the DA were ignored.
However, hon members, the Auditor-General and his reports cannot be ignored. These reports are fundamental in drawing attention to problems at hand. The Auditor-General agreed to do this report at our request and has agreed to undertake various other investigations, one of which will now feature in the SAPS's annual report regarding the correct recording of crime statistics. We have seen a few ANC members promise to fall on their swords should they fail in their duties as public servants. Gauteng community safety MEC, Firoz Cachalia, said he would resign from office if he failed to achieve the targets he set for the province in his crime strategy. The previous Minister, Charles Nqakula, of course did not. One of the many promises the MEC made was that he would improve the functioning of the 10111 call centres.
Sadly, the ANC today works on the premise of their collective so that no individual is ever held accountable. The MEC failed, yet he is still collecting his cheque monthly, now as the Gauteng Economic development MEC, in much the same way that those convicted in the Travelgate matter and for the many other felonies the DA has detailed sit unashamedly in this House.
When we requested a full audit of the 10111 emergency response systems, it was because we believed that such an audit was imperative, given, firstly, the inordinate amount of public money spent on the systems and, secondly, the endless complaints from the public in this regard. The reality is that not one single shift in the 10111 centres investigated came even close to reaching the minimum stipulated service level of 90% - not even close.
If anyone in this room could explain how a service level of 39% during the busiest time of the day, from 2:00 pm until 10:00 pm, is acceptable, I would like to hear the explanation. Mostly, no one bothers to answer the phone and if they do, frankly, one wishes they hadn't bothered. The calls are frequently answered with merely a grunt and an utter debacle ensues while the disaster they are so desperate to report plays out in front of the citizen's eyes.
Even our most civic-minded citizens finally throw in the towel when they have wasted endless time repeating their ID numbers and personal details to someone incapable of taking them down, who then puts them on hold simply to get rid of them.
Of course, in the unlikely event that one manages to navigate one's way through all the levels and grab the gold ring, it is only to discover that it is brass. Our citizens have found out the hard way that no one can be told about their plight because police vehicles are not all equipped with radios and have to use their own private cellphones to communicate. Certainly, this is the case at the West Rand Flying Squad. So, the entire debacle grinds to a halt there.
The SAPS has spent, at latest count, R600 million on the Gauteng 10111 system, an amount next to which the excesses in relation to five-star hotels, pimp-my-ride vehicles and new mansions by the Minister, his deputy and the National Police Commissioner pale into insignificance.
Seventy-nine percent of the calls made to 10111 centres are abandoned by frantic citizens who actually believed that there was a number that they could call if they had an emergency. Will it take a 2010 visitor, as they seem to have a far greater value than the average South African citizen, to be hung up on when they make an emergency call to wake the members of the current governing party out of their stupor in this regard?
I have refused to stay quiet when I've heard sobbing, recently widowed women on the phone relating tales of how they were put on hold six times while their husband, who was shot, bled to death in their arms. That is my job, and it is my sincere wish that today someone, anyone, within the ranks of the ANC, will actually stand up and do theirs. [Applause.]