South Africans are truly fed up with country’s metros, survey reveals

The latest Citizen Satisfaction Survey shows how fed up people are with the country’s metro municipalities on the eve of local government elections, with a 2021 overall satisfaction score for the metros of only 51.1 out of 100 index points compared to 55.7 in 2020, the lowest point in five years.

The overall expectations index showed a decline of 10 out of 100 index points to 63.2, from an average of 73.4 in 2020, indicating a concerning breakdown in citizens’ trust in their metros’ ability to deliver services. All metros showed a decline, except Nelson Mandela Bay which showed a marginal improvement of 0.7 index points.

Research firm Consulta compiled the South African Citizen Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) by doing a survey through online and telephone interviews with 2,537 people during the third quarter of 2021 to measure citizen satisfaction and trust in service delivery in eight category-A municipalities as a snapshot.

The survey covered Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane, and indicated that citizen satisfaction and trust in local municipalities to deliver basic services has dropped to its lowest ebb since the index was done the first time.

Wayne Duvenage, CEO of Outa, says he is not surprised at the all-time low and continued decline in the index.

“The index correlates with the auditor-general’s (AGSA) report of declining financial management and reporting at local government level, which also continues to highlight the declining trend in financial hygiene of administration within municipalities and cities, in certain provinces and regions around the country.” 

He finds the declining rating for Johannesburg, Africa’s economic powerhouse, of particular concern. It has dropped 10 points over five years, from a dismal score of 57 in 2017 to a shocking rating of 47 in 2021, which is the worst among the larger metros and is pipped to the post on worst city rating by Buffalo City (44) and Mangaung (33), both of which have been steeped in cases and allegations of city management corruption and irregular spending for a long time. 

“Citizens are fed up and businesses are moving their factories and investments away from municipalities that underperform or have become defunct. The problem is that a financial death spiral takes hold and feeds into lower employment and reduced municipal taxes being paid.

“The eventual outcome is a point of no return and an ultimate collapse, which has already happened to several municipalities around the country. When this state arises, and it happens relatively quickly, these towns are unable to recover, unless something very drastic happens.”

He says not only local government authorities are to blame, but also the political powers in national and provincial government, including Treasury, who have forsaken their oversight roles and responsibilities.

Many of these municipalities receive grants which are supposed to be conditional to specific financial reporting standards and conduct, which does not take place, and yet grants continue to be paid and city officials continue to maladminister and plunder the purse of these municipalities.

“The coming local elections will be a telling point and hopefully sends a signal to the plundering political officials who have abused their powers and continued to trash our municipalities year after year. We get the administration and political powers that we vote for. Maybe this time around things will change,” he said.

ALSO READ: Metros scored: Survey reveals what residents really think

Overall citizen satisfaction with metros

The overall satisfaction scores for each metro were:

• Cape Town was the only metro that received a score significantly above average at 61.9, although the city still showed a decline of 4.1 index points from its 2020 score of 66.0.
• Ekurhuleni scored 52.2 with a decrease of -6.2 on its 2020 score.
• Nelson Mandela Bay scored 50.5
• eThekwini scored 50.1
• Tshwane scored 50.0
• City of Johannesburg scored 47.2
• Buffalo City scored 44.0
• Mangaung scored 32.6, the lowest score recorded across all sectors in South Africa and any of the indices in the 23 international markets where the model is used, 6.3 index points less than in 2020, when it already had a very low satisfaction score. It scored 51.3 in 2017. 

According to Consulta, it was clear from the results that these metros are falling far short of meeting expectations and the results support the dire picture numerous auditors-general and media reports painted of the dysfunctional state of many municipalities.

The overall satisfaction score shows how exceptionally low citizens’ satisfaction levels are and how severely their trust in their municipalities’ ability to deliver has been eroded. The score is heavily influenced by the significant gaps in citizens’ expectations against perceived quality, that measures what citizens expect against what they actually experience regarding service delivery. 

ALSO READ: Medical schemes’ customer satisfaction levels reach six-year low

Citizen expectations and perceived quality of metros

The results of the section for citizen expectations and perceived quality show that the gap between citizen expectations and perceived quality remains wide at -8,5 as a sector average score although citizen expectations have actually declined, indicating that most metros are not meeting expectations even off a significantly lower base.

These lowered expectations show that many citizens have lost trust and had simply given up on expecting anything better from their metros. The expectations and perceived quality scores were:

• City of Johannesburg at -9,2, eThekwini at -10,3, Tshwane at -11,3 and Mangaung at -15,9 reflected substantial lapses between expectations and actual perceived quality of service delivery.
• The actual perceived quality measure, that citizens perceive they will get, is 54,8, showing a sharp decline from last year’s score of 60,5.
• Cape Town leads on perceived quality with 64,4, well above the average of 54,8.
• Mangaung plummeted to its lowest ebb for perceived quality at 34,3 and Buffalo City scored 43,6.
• Ekurhuleni scored 58,4 and Nelson Mandela Bay 56,3, the only other metros scoring on average for perceived quality. 
• eThekwini on 54,2, Tshwane on 52,2, Johannesburg on 51,3, Buffalo City on 43,6 and Mangaung on 34,3 all perform below average.
• Customer expectations were highest in Cape Town with 71,3 and lowest in Mangaung at 50,2 and Buffalo City at 51,6. 

ALSO READ: Mobile service providers battle to meet customer expectations – survey

Detailed service quality evaluation

In the detailed service quality evaluation, the key drivers of citizen satisfaction and evaluation include refuse removal, maintenance and building of roads, keeping parks neat and tidy, providing clean drinking water, access to electricity, sewage and stormwater drainage management and street lighting.

Cape Town is the only metro that delivers on every one of these measures at margins significantly above average, while Ekurhuleni met the average with most of the evaluation scores. Mangaung performed far below average on all these scores, indicating a collapse in all service delivery aspects that matter.

ALSO READ: Local Elections 2021: Voters must do the right thing

Citizen satisfaction with complaints to metros

Regarding complaint incidence and handling, Mangaung had the lowest complaint handling score of 21,9, far below the average score of 35,7 and a high complaint incidence of 53,9 which indicates that citizen complaints remain largely unresolved. 

eThekwini had the highest complaint incidence rate of 57,9%, followed by Tshwane with 54,7%, Mangaung with 53,9%, Ekurhuleni with 52,3%, Cape Town with 47,9%, Johannesburg with 47,4, Buffalo City with 40,9% and Nelson Mandela Bay at 34,4% with the lowest incidence rate.

Buffalo City had the best complaint handling score at 48,1, followed by Cape Town at 43,9, Ekurhuleni at 38,1, Nelson Mandela Bay at 37,9 and Tshwane at 36,6, with eThekwini on 32,6, Johannesburg on 28,6 and Mangaung on 21,9 performing below average on complaint handling.

Citizens of the metros complained most about water supply and management, followed by electricity supply and then refuse removal.

ALSO READ: These are SA’s best and favourite banks

Citizen trust

In line with all the other sections, citizen trust declined to its lowest point since the index was started, dropping to an average of 53,6 in 2021, from 60,7 in 2020 and 64,9 in 2017. All the metros had a sharp decline in citizen trust scores compared to 2020, except for Nelson Mandela Bay which remained the same. This is how trusted the metros are:

• Cape Town was the outright leader at 65,1, almost 12 index points above average and at least 10 index points ahead of any other metro.
• Ekurhuleni at 54,8, Nelson Mandela Bay at 53,7, Tshwane at 53,4 and eThekwini at 52,1 had scores closed to average.
• Johannesburg on 48,4, Buffalo City on 44,3 and Mangaung on 38,4 were far below average on citizen trust. 

The 2021 index indicates that local government is 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 the lack of being heard.

“The reality is that service delivery has decreased substantially, such as Mangaung’s rapid decline that represents catastrophic levels in citizen satisfaction by any measure.

“If these satisfaction scores across all metros were present in any private sector, they would not exist in any shape or form in a competitive market environment where consumers, or citizens, have freedom of choice,” says Natasha Doren, senior consultant at Consulta.

This story was updated with comments from Outa.