KAROO NEWS - Residents were unable to contact the municipality on landlines for over a week in both Graaff-Reinet and Aberdeen, which was a cause of much inconvenience.

To add to the frustration, no explanation, or alternative contact numbers have been made readily available.

A request from the Advertiser on Monday for more details and alternative numbers received a reply from Acting Communications Officer Wilca Smith stating that "all telephone lines were off due to a technical problem". She added that all lines would be restored at the end of that business day.

This did not happen, but fortunately the lines in Graaff-Reinet were restored shortly before noon on Tuesday.

When dialling the Aberdeen offices, callers are greeted with a Telkom recorded message that "the number you have dialled is presently not in service".

One resident was told that the service had been suspended by Telkom, due to unpaid accounts. When this was put to Smith, she did not respond.

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