Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
A Mpumalanga local council does not have a telephone line despite applying for one two years ago.
Patrick Aphane, a councillor at the Moutse Transitional Local Council, says he believes the delays are due to lack of commitment by Telkom staff.
“At various summits, Telkom officials gave us the impression that local governments, clinics and schools were priority customers for Telkom.”
But the Moutse council uses cellphones because Telkom has not installed a telephone yet.
In 1997, the council asked Telkom to install four lines at its new offices in Dennilton. It was based at Moutse Magistrate’s Court and was about to relocate to its new offices when it made the application. But when the council moved, Telkom had not yet installed a single telephone.
In a letter dated October 3 1997 Telkom area manager M Kannemeyer explained: “I have to inform you that due to shortage of cable leads it is unfortunately not possible to provide you with telephone service at this stage. Your application has therefore been recorded for consideration as soon as circumstances permit.”
But Kannemeyer wrote another letter saying the council’s application for “a telephone service is now outstanding for a considerable time and it will be appreciated if you can, for record purposes, indicate if you are still interested in telephone service”.
The council responded that it needed a telephone badly, but Telkom failed once again to install the line.
Says Aphane: “The fact that we do not have telephones as yet today has very serious implications. We are already using six cellular phones, which obviously has very serious financial implications for the fledgling [council].”
He says the council spends more than R3 000 a month to pay cellphone bills. “Another problem is that when we need to fax, we must drive 60km to the Moutse magistrate’s office. Receiving information is also a problem because we have to put a car on standby to collect received faxes,” Aphane says.
Telkom officials said this week the problem was still the shortage of cables.