My Joburg - Contact Us
Emergency Contact Centre
Emergency Call Talking Centre
It is an emergency number for the City of Johannesburg through which one can ask for help when life or property is threatened. Through this number residents will be put in touch with the nearest relevant emergency service provider, like ambulance services, traffic officers, the fire department or metro police. This is an emergency call centre with a single contact number to assist the public in any life-threatening situations - Fire, Ambulance, Metro Police.
The fire brigade, the ambulance service with paramedics, traffic officers and the metro police in your area can be alerted immediately a call is made.
- The centre is operational 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
- The staff compliment of 45 staff is broken into 4 shifts of 9 emergency call takers and 1 Supervisor. These shifts work
on a rotational shift basis of 2 dayshifts followed by 2 nightshift, which in turn is followed by 4 rest days. - These shifts operate for 12 hours each from 07h00 – 19h00 (dayshift) and 19h00 – 07h00 (nightshift) There is a
permanent dayshift compliment of 4 emergency call takers who work between 08h00–18h00
Monday to Friday. The department has 1 back office administrator.
It is a 24-hour emergency services call centre, which deals with life threatening calls only. Call agents take all calls relating to life threatening emergencies, log the call and send it through to a dispatcher in either EMS or JMPD for the immediate dispatching of an emergency vehicle i.e. ambulance, fire engines, rescue vehicles and metro police.
- A call agent, specially trained to deal with emergency situations, answers the call.
- A call agent inquires and captures necessary patient/incident information and location. An agent is able to provide life saving telephonic medical assistance if necessary.
- The captured patient/incident details are transferred electronically to the appropriate dispatch centre.
All staff has undergone extensive training in customer care and telephone etiquette. All staff is medically qualified and possesses a Basic Ambulance Certificate level 5. Workshops and additional training is ongoing.
We have endeavored to cater for as many languages as possible in each of the shifts. In addition we have also
developed manuals to assist call takers in enquiring pertinent information in Venda, Sotho, Zulu and Afrikaans.
They are simultaneously aware of the current position of all ambulances available and can dispatch them with
maximum efficiency. Dispatchers convey details about the medical emergency, as well as the quickest route, to
paramedics by cell phone or radio so they are prepared. The same incident / patient information is available to all
dispatchers simultaneously making the service as efficient as possible.
They dispatch the nearest available metro police vehicle to the scene.
When you or anybody near you:
- Suffers serious burns or injuries;
- Has eaten or drunk something poisonous or is poisoned by gas;
- Witnesses or is involved in a road accident;
- Is involved in a drowning incident;
- Is in emergency childbirth;
- Suffers a serious medical condition, like a heart attack, asthma or other; or
- Sudden collapse.
- And others.
When you witness, or are aware of
- Serious crimes such as car hijacking, armed robbery, theft or murder;
- Sexual and physical abuse of children and women, a fire, flood or explosion in a building or vehicle that could endanger lives; or
- The effects of a natural disaster, like fire, floods or a storm.
Dial 011 37 55 911; or 10177 or 112 on your cell phone
- Stay calm, speak clearly and stay on the line until the operator tells you to replace the receiver;
- Tell the operator where to find the person or people needing care, who is hurt, sick or in danger and briefly explain what happened; and
- Give the exact location of the emergency and point out any landmarks to help the emergency services locate the scene.
- What should you do when you witness a crime or serious accident?
Phone 37 55 911 or 10177 or 112 on your cell phone and report what you have seen. The operator will tell
you if you should do anything more, such as apply first aid, and when.
- Don't move an injured person unless they are in danger;
- Keep those who are injured warm and comfortable;
- Calm children down by talking gently to them;
- Stay calm and get other unharmed people to help keep the victims safe; and
- Make it easy for emergency services to spot and reach you.
- The number is only to be called in an emergency or in a life-threatening situation.
- If you dial the number by accident, tell the operator immediately.
- Hoax or prank telephone calls just clog the system and could prevent the call agent from attending to a real emergency.
- Hoax or prank calls will lead to the prosecution of the person who made the call, as per Icasa legislation.
Call Centre
City of Johannesburg Call Centre (0860 – JOBURG OR 0860 562 874)
It is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year contact centre that logs all customer inquiries and complaints regarding all services.
- City’s Call Centre is part of a network of contact points for Customers/Citizens which includes Customer Walking Centres and the city’s web site www.Joburg.org.za
- Joburg Connect is a “Call Centre”, it is designed for customers/residents who would rather communicate
with the City by telephone. - Customer Walking Centres are designed for Customers/Citizens who would rather meet with a member
of staff and discuss a query. - The web site www.joburg.org.za is designed for Customers/Citizens who would rather communicated
with the City using the Internet.
0860 Joburg is called a smart number. This means that a dialer makes use of the alphanumeric counterpart of a telephone number. For example: On a touchtone and cellular keypad you would type 0860 and then 5 (JKL) ; 6 (mn) 2 (abc); 8 (tuv) 7(PQRS); 4(GHI). For customer's with smart phones & QWERTY keyboards the number is 0860 56 2874.
Account Enquires: Press 1
This is for all matters relating to an Account.
Electricity Technical: Press 2
This is for all electrical technical fault reporting
Water Technical: Press 3
This is for all water technical fault reporting
Pikitup: Press 4
For refuse removal and waste management
JRA: Press 5
This is for roads related issues
Metro Bus and Rea Vaya: Press 6
For all transportation matters, bus schedules, routes.
Other: Press 0
For all other matters that are not covered above customers/residents are advised to select option or press 0
The Call Centre handles queries regarding all municipal services and accounts.
- Revenue (Billing) Call Centre - deals with all billing matters relating to an account, i.e payments and statement enquiries, incorrect/inaccurate billing (rates, electricity, water and sewage, refuse), account status, address updates (only postal), estimated bills (water and electricity), and others.
- Electricity Technical Call Centre – deals with all fault reporting on electricity meter related issues (fault logging), meter changes, meter and estimated readings, meter reading schedules, meter reading contractors, prepaid and smart meters inquiries, prepaid vending, power outages (both planned and unplanned), tarrifs, cable theft, illegal connections, and others.
- Water Technical Call Centre deals with all water technical related issues such as faulty meters, leaking meters, burst
pipes and blocked drains, spewing sewage, meter and estimated readings, meter reading schedules, prepaid vending, change meters, meter reading contractors, water maintenance, planned and unplanned water disruptions, and others. - Refuse Call Centre deals with all queries related to refuse removal and waste management. For example ordering of new bins, broken or replacement bins, reporting of stolen bins, bin collection schedules, illegal dumping, recycling, compost sites, depot addresses, landfills, e-waste, refuse tarrifs, and others.
- Johannesburg Roads Agency Call Centre – this is for road related issues such as faulty traffic lights, These includes emergency defects relating to roads and stormwater, such as logging of potholes, flooding, blocked kerb inlets, missing manhole covers, and others.
- Transportation Call Centre (Metrobus and Reya Vaya) – deals with all transport related matters, for example bus
schedules and times, bus routes and maps, fares and fare increases, smart card information, and others. - General Call Centre – deals with any City's general informational issues that are not serviced by the by the above named call centres. For example, what time is the Johannesburg Zoo opening and others.
The purpose of the Call Centre is to handle all customer queries relating to their municipal accounts. The function of the Call Centre is to resolve at least 80% of queries received at first contact. If the call centre is unable to resolve the query at first contact, the customer complaint is logged on the City's Customer Relationship Management System and the customer is provided with a reference number.
The level of staffing is planned around the expected number of incoming calls, based on the history of call levels. This varies over a single day, a week and other a monthly cycle. This is the practice in call centres throughout the world.
Calls are routed by automatic call distribution (ACD) to the first available agent. If the nature of the query requires an investigation, the call centre agent creates a service request (with a reference number). Depending on the nature of the query, the service request is then routed to the relevant department or municipal entity for further resolution. The department or municipal entity does the necessary investigation and ultimately resolves the query. The call centre communicates customer queries to the department or municipal entities via the SAP Customer Relationship Management System, which serves as a primary link to the Call Centre.
Customers may use the reference number that was provided to them to obtain progress feedback on their outstanding queries. They can do this by calling the call centre. In addition to this the City runs customer query feedback processes via sms, telephonic communications and electronic mail in order to provide customer feedback. It is therefore important that the City has the correct customer contact details.
The Customer Relations Agents will capture the details/query into the system. All urgent and life threatening calls are directed and reported through our emergency protocols and escalated to the depots.
Once the job is done by the plumbers/ technical crew, the data capturer from the respective team will input the
resolution description on the SAP system for the Call Centre view when the customer does a follow-up on a call.
If a large number of customers/citizens try to phone at the same time, the customer relations agents, who answer the calls, will not be able to answer all the calls. Some customers/citizens will give up because they have waited so long.
As an example, an unusually high number of calls will be received when there is a major power failure. We all know someone else has already reported the problem but we need to talk to an agent ourselves, it's normal behaviour.
The utilities and agencies who supply the services can and do create messages that can be heard by customers/citizens phoning Call Centre, stating they are aware of unplanned service delivery failures.
The Call Centre also have a “bulletin board” so all the customer relations agents can see the updates from the utilities and agencies who supply the services.
The overwhelming majority of calls answered by the Call Centre are resolved within a reasonable period. The
overwhelming majority of calls are resolved within the timeframes set within the service level agreement entered with departments and municipal entities.
The Call Centre has recognised that some types of “call logged” are not being resolved in a timeframe that a reasonable person would consider acceptable, and has developed a “track and trace” mechanisms to help departments and municipal entities identify problem areas.
The majority of calls received by Call Centre are resolved then and there, without reference to a third party. We do not hear normally about this type of call because the customer/citizen is satisfied and does not talk to anyone about the service they have received.
In a minority of calls the customer/citizen relations agent cannot resolve the problem immediately, this is normally because of one of two reasons.
- It is simply impossible to resolve the query immediately, someone else must do it. This is the case with service
delivery failures, when the customer/citizen relations agent logs the call and the responsible municipal entity or core service delivery department must go and fix the problem. It is unlikely that there will be significant reductions in the percentage of these types of calls that can be resolved by Call Centre in the future. - The customer/citizen relations agent does not have sufficient information or authority to resolve the query
immediately and must refer it to someone else. Call Centre is working with municipal entities and City's
departments and other spheres of government to significantly reduce this type of unnecessary referral.
You don't need to. If the customer/citizen prefers using the phone, then the Call Centre is the right channel. If they want to talk to someone face to face then a Customer Walking Centre is likely the better option. Finally, some customers/citizens do not want to see or talk to a council official, for them using e-services on our web site would be preferable.
What is important is to encourage customers/citizens to report problems as early as possible, using the most appropriate channel. A reported water burst, illegal dumping, theft of electricity, a stolen cover, gives the municipal entity or City department, the opportunity to fix the problem, reduce the potential loss and make our communities safer places for our families.