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Remember this number – 0800 023 456.
Keep it in your address book, write it down on a sticky note, display it on your fridge door, and spread it as widely as possible.
It’s the number of Corruption Watch’s new call centre, which has just launched in its pilot phase and is targeting schools corruption specifically.
The call centre is part of Corruption Watch’s ongoing schools campaign, which aims to tackle all kinds of corruption dragging down the performance of our schools and affecting the progress of our learners. It will therefore function as the school tip-off hotline.
The call centre is open all day and night. There is no charge if calling from a land line, but use of a cell phone will be charged at standard call charges.
The centre took its first call on Wednesday 18 September, and will run until 15 December. After this we hope it will become a permanent arrangement. We have every reason to believe it will be successful – since January 2012 we’ve received 270 reports relating directly to corruption in schools, with 69 of them coming in between July and August 2013. That’s a quarter of all schools reports received!
David Lewis, the executive director of Corruption Watch, said: “We are committed to making ourselves as accessible to the public as possible. If people respond positively to the call centre it will become an important means of communicating their experiences of corruption.”
All 11 official languages are available at most times, although occasionally one or two may not be immediately accessible. In these cases the caller’s details will be recorded and they will be contacted at a time convenient for them, by an operator who speaks their preferred language.
Operators have received special training to allow them to accurately, securely and sensitively capture all the necessary information. All calls are recorded so that if necessary, they can be replayed to verify captured information.
Hotline quick facts:
• The number is 0800 023 456
• It’s free from a land line – but if you use a cell phone you will pay standard call rates
• It’s completely anonymous
• It’s a phone call away 24/7
• The service is available in all 11 official languages
• Currently it focuses on corruption in schools.
Besides our new call centre, Corruption Watch makes it possible for you to help fight corruption by providing various other ways to report it to us:
• You can fill in our online form (and you can also sign the pledge against corruption)
• You can send an SMS containing the word BRIBE to 45142 (R1 per SMS)
• You can send an email to info@corruptionwatch.org.za
• You can post a snail-mail letter to PO Box 113, Parklands, 2121.
