Many have opined that Cape Town is the greatest city in South Africa – there are beautiful beaches, diverse residents and of course, the breathtaking Table Mountain. A recent barometer that focuses on the citizen satisfaction in the country’s major municipalities found that Capetonians are the most satisfied with their municipality.
The barometer, conducted by Consulta and SA-csi, focused on the main metros of Cape Town, Buffalo City, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Mangaung and Nelson Mandela Bay.
Although Cape Town’s satisfaction levels have dropped by 3.3 index points since last year’s barometer was conducted, it still remains the top municipality in the country. All other municipalities listed, however, all dropped in points, but Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane remain on par with the industry despite this.
The only metro to increase its score is Nelson Mandela Bay, increasing from 59.0 to 61.9.
Out of all citizen complaints in the country, 36% of these comprised of water-related complaints. Another 20% of these comprised of electricity-related complaints.
Road conditions account for 8% of complaints, while tax bills amount to 12% and call centre complaints make up 5% of overall complaints. Street lights make up just below 5% of complaints.
“This tells us that citizens are unsatisfied with both service delivery aspects, as well as the behaviour of municipality representatives in how issues are handled and addressed,” SA-csi said.
The 2018 barometer shows that complaint-handling performance decreased by 4 index points across all municiplaities. Cape Town, Johannesburg, Buffalo City and Tshwane showed significant supplies.
Nelson Mandela Bay increased in complaint-handling performance and did so by 3 index points.
Although Cape Town sits at the top of the overal satisfaction board, its residents have shown the largest decrease in the confidence in their municipalities.
“From the service delivery perspective and in order of importance, citizens want access to electricity, reliability of electricity when needed, and provision of clean drinking water,” SA-csi said. “In Cape Town, people love to live in a beautiful city. Poor leadership and political expediency, where political gains are prioritised above the welfare of people. In certain municipalities, service delivery just doesn’t seem to be a priority for the municipality.”
It added that Cape Town’s political climate has also contributed to the percpetion of its residents’ confidence.
“In fact, 2019 is an election year, so citizens could hold municipal principles to account.”
Overall municipality scores:
City of Cape Town (Western Cape) – 65.2
Nelson Mandela Bay (Eastern Cape) – 61.9
Ekurhuleni (Gauteng) – 57.6
City of Tshwane (Gauteng) – 56.2
City of Johannesburg (Gauteng) – 55.0
Buffalo City (Eastern Cape) – 46.2
Manguang (Free State) – 41.1
Picture: Pixabay