Fiveteen years after apartheid ended the lives of many South Africans have not improved. Dur­ing the sum­mer, the poor of the coun­try took to the streets in vio­lent protest over the lack of basic services.

React­ing to the protest, recently elected Pres­i­dent Jacob Zuma has started a hot line to his office. The pur­pose of the hot line is so peo­ple can com­plain about the lack of water or elec­tric­ity or any thing else.

From Reuters Alert Net, we read more about Zuma’s efforts to reach out to the rioters.

Zuma, who took office in May, has pledged to do more for the poor, but finan­cial woes in Africa’s biggest econ­omy have lim­ited his abil­ity to carry out the main plank of his party’s elec­tion manifesto.

“You may receive calls from very angry peo­ple,” Zuma, who took calls him­self as the hot­line opened, told call cen­tre staff.

“They will say there’s no water, there’s no elec­tric­ity,” Zuma was quoted by gov­ern­ment news agency BuaNews as saying.

Vusi Mona, head of com­mu­ni­ca­tions in the president’s office, said 2,420 calls to the toll-free num­ber were being han­dled each hour.

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