The presidency has conceded that fewer than a third of the complaints lodged to President Jacob Zuma's public hotline have been handled successfully since the service was launched in mid-September.

In response to a parliamentary question, it said that between September 14 and November 27, there were 30 650 calls to the hotline of which 9190 cases were resolved.

The presidency also said the hotline was not able to cope with the number of calls from South Africans complaining about delivery issues.

"The presidential hotline is not able to handle the call load at this stage. Even if we were to scale up the number of call agents, we can only do so up to a certain limit ? given that resources are limited."

The presidency said provincial departments have been slow in responding to complaints listed with the hotline, resolving only 18 percent received in the past three months.

National departments fared somewhat better with 33 percent.

It said Zuma has urged all premiers and ministers to take steps to remedy the situation and "ensure all enquiries transferred to them for investigation are responded to urgently and efficiently".

It said the nature of complaints included crime, housing shortages, unfair labour practices, difficulties with banks and insurance companies, breaches of contract by government departments and requests for funding, including bursaries.

There were also numerous complaints from political parties "especially the Democratic Alliance", which has been scathing about the quality of service.