Call centre operational again

Nelson Mandela Bay’s service delivery call centre has reopened, the municipality and workers have confirmed.

This followed an instruction by mayor Mongameli Bobani to the city’s administrators to ensure that employment contracts for the 32 call centre staff were drawn up by Wednesday.

The staff, who are contracted to the municipality through a recruitment agency, had not answered any calls from the public since Friday.

The service delivery hotline is used mainly to field complaints about water leaks, burst pipes, blocked drains and electricity outages.

The workers downed tools late last week, saying the municipality had not followed through on its promise to hire them permanently.

Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said on Tuesday that the centre was open.

“This follows an hour-long meeting between the executive mayor and staff about their grievances,” he said.

“The mayor instructed the acting city manager [Peter Neilson] to resolve the grievances urgently.” One call centre worker, who declined to be named, said: “The mayor pleaded with us to resume work and promised that by tomorrow (Wednesday) all the necessary arrangements would be done ensuring that staff receives the contracts.

Bobani said: “We would like to apologise to the residents of the city for the inconvenience.

“I have instructed the acting city manager to resolve this issue. It is unacceptable that our residents suffer because of people who don’t take their jobs seriously.”