August 4, 2005
By Anish Abraham
STICKING to its word, the City will take legal action against a person who allegedly made hoax calls to the Joburg Connect call centre, pending the results of an investigation into the incident by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The city's Emergency Call Centre has reported an increase in hoax calls, which are dangerous as they block the phone lines to those who really are in life-threatening situations.
Kgamanyane Maphologela, the head of communications at Joburg Connect, said these calls could lead to a loss of life when citizens tried to report life-threatening emergencies as the large volume of hoax calls blocked the emergency telephone lines.
The matter was being investigated; legal action would be taken and a formal charge laid once the investigating officer had completed his report, Maphologela said.
Over the past few months several bomb threats had been made, targeting the Joburg Connect call centre in Roodepoort.
The matter was lodged with SAPS Florida and later transferred to the Sandton Bomb Squad. The police have since questioned an unnamed male living in the Randpark area for making two bomb threats.
Maphologela said although the residence and the telephone number of the prankster had been identified, police were trying to match the voice to the face of the person they questioned.
Joburg Connect records all calls, which can be used to identify the perpetrators.
If the hoax caller is charged, it will set a precedent that shows the serious light in which Joburg Connect views such calls.
The Emergency Call Centre handles an average of 110 000 calls a month, some 40 percent of which are said to be hoax calls.
Although adults do place hoax calls, the majority are made by children. As such, during school holidays the number of hoax calls increases.
Maphologela denounced hoax calls as malicious and said they placed the lives of the public, emergency and rescue personnel in jeopardy.
"Those two calls [being investigated] alone cost the city about 472 unanswered incoming calls, of which 455 were life threatening."
Johannesburg's ambulance, fire and metro police respond to more than 20 000 calls a month and hoax calls can place an extra burden on those units - at great cost to the taxpayer.
To combat the problem, Joburg Connect is working with emergency management services and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department in schools and other educational institutions to teach people about the dangers and consequences of making hoax calls.
Emergency management services also operate Qaphela and Besafe; both programmes are aimed at teaching children what to do in case of emergencies and to refrain from abusing the system.
In addition, Joburg Connect has since decided to engage in integrated public awareness campaigns.
The principle behind the integrated approach is to create awareness through many different media, like newspapers, road shows, television and radio.
Maphologela said that apart from financial costs through lost revenue, increased education campaigns and having to evacuate the call centre, hoax calls also put the lives of innocent city residents in jeopardy.
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