Service delivery in all metros has decreased to substantially below acceptable benchmarks in any industry or sector, according to Consulta’s eight South African Citizen Satisfaction Index (SA-csi).
Cape Town emerged as the leader on overall citizen satisfaction for the fifth consecutive year.
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The SA-csi survey was conducted in October and involved 2 537 participants interviewed online and telephonically in all metros.
Cape Town recorded a score of 61.9 out of a possible 100, showing a four point decline on its score of 66 in 2020.
The Democratic Alliance-run metro scored 10 points above all municipalities and well ahead of all other metropolitan municipalities, which perform either on or below par.
The index showed that municipalities recorded the lowest satisfaction scores by a far margin for all industry sectors tracked by Consulta.
Metros scored an average low at 51.1, declining from 55.7 in 2020 and reaching the lowest point in five years.
Consulta said this indicates that citizens’ satisfaction levels are exceptionally low, and trust in the ability of municipalities to deliver is severely eroded.
The Nelson Mandela Bay metro showed a marginal improvement of a 0.7 index point while Ekurhuleni lost its previous leader position of 58.4, declining by a significant -6,2 on its 2020 score.
Citizen satisfaction in Nelson Mandela Bay metro stands at 50.5 from 49.8 in 2020; the eThekwini metro stands at 50.1, down from 57.2; Tshwane scored 50.0, down from 53.6; and the City of Johannesburg scored 47.2, down from 51.4r.
ANC-run municipalities in Mangaung metro showed the lowest citizen satisfaction for the fourth year in a row at 32.6. Buffalo City metro had the second lowest score for the fourth year in a row.
SA-csi evaluated metros on the key drivers of citizen satisfaction, including refuse removal, maintenance and building of new roads, keeping parks neat and tidy, providing clean drinking water, provision of electricity, sewage and stormwater drainage management, and street lighting.
The survey found that Cape Town is the only metro that delivers on every one of these measures at margins significantly above par, followed by Ekurhuleni. Mangaung metro scored well below par, “indicating a collapse in all service delivery aspects that matter to citizens”.
A senior consultant at Consulta, Natasha Doren, said the overall expectations index has declined by an alarming 10-index points to 63.2, from a par of 73.4 in 2020, which signals a worrying breakdown in citizen trust in metros’ ability to deliver services.
Doren said the gap between citizen expectations and perceived quality remains wide, at -8.5, as a sector par score, even though citizen expectations have declined.
“Essentially it means that most metros are not meeting their citizen expectations even off a significantly lower base. Lowered expectations indicate that many citizens have lost trust and given up on expecting anything better from their metros,” Doren said.
The survey shows that perceived quality measures saw a sharp decline from 2020’s score of 60.5 to 54.8 this year.
In the test for perceived quality of service delivery by citizens, Cape Town metro was at 64.4 while Mangaung metro plummeted to its lowest level at 34.3 and Buffalo City to 43.6 — both significantly below the average of 54.8. Tshwane, which scored 52.2, and Nelson Mandela Bay metro, which scored 56.3, are DA-run metros.
ANC-led metros scored below 60 with Ekurhuleni at 58.4, eThekwini (54.2), Johannesburg (51.3), and Buffalo City (43.6).
Doren said customer expectations are highest in Cape Town (71.3) and lowest in Mangaung (50.2) and Buffalo City (51.6).
“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 close to being realised,” Doren said in a statement.
“The 2021 index indicates that local governments are fast running out of road. As citizens get ready to head to the polls for local municipal elections on 1 November, there is every expectation that the growing levels of citizen dissatisfaction will manifest in their votes or lack thereof. The reality is that service delivery has decreased to substantially below acceptable benchmarks in any industry or sector. For example, Mangaung’s rapid decline represents catastrophic levels in citizen satisfaction by any measure. The reality is that if the satisfaction scores across all metros were present in any private sector, such entities would not exist in any shape or format in a competitive market environment where consumers, or citizens, have freedom of choice.”
When it comes to municipalities handling citizens’ problems, the Mangaung metro is considered the lowest in complaint handling at 21.9, well below the average score of 35.7. It has a high complaint incidence of 53.9, indicating that citizen complaints remain largely unresolved.
Some problems that ranked high in citizen complaints were water supply followed by electricity supply and then refuse removal.
The eThekwini metro showed the highest complaint incidence rate (57.9%), followed by Tshwane (54.7%), Mangaung (53.9%), Ekurhuleni (52.3%), Cape Town (47.9%), Johannesburg (47.4), Buffalo City (40.9%) and Nelson Mandela Bay (34.4%).
ANC-led Buffalo City scored the best complaint handling (48.1). Cape Town scored 43.9, Ekurhuleni 38.1, Nelson Mandela Bay 37.9 and Tshwane 36.6, Ethekwini 32.6, Johannesburg 28.6 and Mangaung 21.9, all performing below par on complaint handling.
“The results of this index point to a growing dissatisfaction over the past couple of years of a decreasing trend in value for money on service delivery that citizens fund through payment of utility accounts, rates and taxes. The time has come for local government management to take accountability for their mandated functions and responsibilities or face the growing defection of residents and businesses from dysfunctional municipalities to run better councils resulting in continuous erosion of servicing revenue streams — all of this has massive implications for local economies,” Doren said.
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