More indigents registered, but councils battle to deliver

MUNICIPALITIES have registered more indigent households to benefit from free basic services, but are struggling to deliver these services to all those who qualify, it emerged from a Statistics South Africa report.

South Africa had 3 482 260 indigent households registered in 2014, with the majority in councils of the Eastern Cape (829 371), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (770 049), Gauteng (484 861), Limpopo (465 548) and the Western Cape (413 259).

The “Non-financial census of municipalities: 2014” report shows the overall numbers have increased by nearly 140 000, or 4.2 percent, from 2013, because, Stats SA said, of awareness drives by councils on their indigent policies.

The number of registered indigent households dropped by just over 5 800 in the Western Cape, by just short of 5 000 in the Northern Cape, by about 18 500 in the Free State and by just more than 48 760 in Limpopo. These drops were offset by increases in Gauteng, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and North West.

The Stats SA report shows that not all those who qualify and are registered benefit from free electricity units, free kilolitres of water, and a discount on sanitation and solid-waste removal.

These free units and discounts can vary from council to council. In 2001, the standard was set at 50MW of electricity, 6kl of water and a R50 discount on sanitation and solid-waste management.

While all 484 861 registered indigent households in Gauteng – South Africa’s economic hub – receive free electricity units, less than half receive the free water allocation (228 304), while half (240 128) receive the sanitation discount. About two- thirds of Gauteng’s households receive the discounted solid-waste service.

In KZN’s 770 049 registered indigent households, less than a third, or 217 988, receive free electricity units, but statistics look up for free water (589 008), sanitation (432 846) and solid waste (670 032).

Of the Western Cape’s registered 413 259 indigent households, 407 377 receive free electricity units and 406 262 get free water.

Sanitation discounts are given to 400 143 indigent households and 403 476 indigent households benefit from the solid-waste management discounts.

The Free State falls short of just a few hundred households regarding the free basic services. Of the province’s 122 611 registered indigent households, 122 427 receive free power, 121 099 free water, 121 486 sanitation and 122 465 free solid-waste services.

For the Eastern Cape’s 829 371 registered indigent households, it’s a mixed picture. Around a quarter (223 579) receive free solidwaste services and 300 888 the free electricity units.

Free water benefits 570 823 indigent households, while 527 159 receive the dis- counted solid-waste service.

The statistics on free basic services to registered indigent households comes as municipalities overall were delivering more to their residents in 2014 than a year earlier.

Municipal residents consumed about 500 000 more water units – 12 116 820 in 2014, up from 11 661 295 in 2013, with a similar additional amount of electricity units – 10 454 556 units in 2014, up from 9 998 039 in 2013.

Proportionally, the solidwaste removal and sanitation services consumption also increased.