Satisfaction plummets on service delivery

WITH the local government elections just days away, citizen satisfaction and trust in local municipalities to deliver basic services has dropped to its lowest point in five years.

This is according to Consulta’s 8th South African Citizen Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) released this week.

The overall citizen satisfaction level, as an average across all metros, was at 51.1 – further declining from 55.7 in 2020 and reaching the lowest point in five years.

Of the eight metropolitan municipalities – Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane – polled in the index in 2021, the results showed that they were falling far short of meeting citizens’ expectations.

The index measures the citizen satisfaction and trust in service delivery in eight categories. The sample size was 2 537, and interviews were conducted online and telephonically during the third quarter of 2021 across the metros.

The key drivers of citizen satisfaction and the aspects under evaluation in the index included refuse removal, maintenance of and building new roads, keeping parks neat, providing clean drinking water, access to electricity, sewage and stormwater drainage management and street lighting.

Cape Town again emerged as the leader on overall citizen satisfaction for the fifth consecutive year. Cape Town recorded a score of 61.9 out of a possible 100 – although showing a four-point decline on its previous score of 66 in 2020.

All metros showed a decline in overall citizen satisfaction scores compared with 2020, except Nelson Mandela Bay, which showed a marginal improvement of 0.7 index points, pointing to a slight positivity increase.

EThekwini Municipality achieved a score of 50.1, dropping from 57.2 in 2020. While the City of Joburg scored 47.2 and City of Tshwane achieved 50.

“The results show that citizens’ expectations of local government delivery of services are very far from being met. The 10-point decline in citizen expectations compared with 2020 is a significant red flag. Lower expectations are typically the driver of drops in all other metrics of citizen satisfaction, including overall quality (perceived by the citizen), meeting their needs and reliability. Overall, the below-par performance is driven by widely held negative perception of reliability of services, many of which are teetering on or have collapsed in many local councils,” said Natasha Doren, a senior consultant at Consulta.

“Local government structures are the only sphere of government in South Africa where our Constitution stipulates a clear mandate: a functional body that ensures that citizens are provided with quality transport and roads; adequate spatial planning and housing; economic opportunities and development; essential services ranging from utilities to fire services as well as recreation and an environment to work, live and thrive in.

“For millions of citizens, this mandate is nowhere.”