Gauteng in state of ‘polycrisis’: 81% dissatisfied with government and 50% on grants

Government leadership and academia paint Gauteng as a province with complex problems.

Compiled by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), provincial officials presented the 2023/24 Quality of Life (QoL) survey results on Tuesday.

This is the seventh survey of its kind which is conducted every two to three years to gauge the perceptions residents have of their lives and surroundings.

Quality of Life survey data sets

The latest survey was conducted at the backend of 2023 and posed 200 set questions to 13,795 respondents from 529 wards across the province.

Each ward featured at least 20 participants, with only one person per randomly selected household allowed to complete the questionnaire.

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The questions focused on economic and social opinions, allowing the GCRO to calculate the QoL index.

This index is based on seven factors: Service, socio-economic status, government satisfaction, health, safety, life satisfaction and participation.

Home situations

The survey found that 32% of households surveyed had at least one member receiving the R350 Social Relief Distress grant, a figure up by 9% since 2021.

Additionally, 50% of households receive some form of social grant, with 37% of households on the municipal indigent register.

The number of children dependent on government feeding schemes accounted for 48% of households.

20% of households had a child who missed a meal because there was not enough money for food, with 26% of adults in the same position.

Services and perception of government

As for municipal services, 92% of those surveyed had access to piped water but 60% said it was clean, and a further 75% were satisfied with their level of access.

On specific issues, 27% were happy with their municipal billing, 37% were satisfied with their roads and 29% were satisfied with the public spaces in their areas.

Overall, 38% were satisfied with the access to basic services, leading to 81% saying they were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their government.

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Regarding officials, 76% believed government officials did not put people first, with 75% stating their belief that the country was going in the wrong direction

At least 48% of those surveyed believe crime had gotten worse and harsher still, 57% believed that South Africa was a failed state.

Happiness of Gauteng residents

Gauging how residents interacted with others, 69% of respondents participated in social activities, while 57% participated in political activities.

In terms of immediate social support, 7% were dissatisfied with their marriage and 9% were dissatisfied with their interactions with friends.

GCRO’s final analysis determined that the people of Gauteng were fractionally unhappier than they were in 2022.

GCRO’s overall index score of 59.5 out of 100 was less than the 61.4 from 2020/21, now the lowest it has been since 2014.

As a result, those surveyed are 25% more at risk of being depressed than in 2017/18.  

‘Social contract fraying’

Panellist Professor Edgar Pieterse said it was worrying that the data sets were showing a decline, saying that building societies was an intergenerational project.

“More fundamentally, what this points to is that our social fabric is fraying and the social contract is being undone,” he said.

“What the polycrisis does as a concept is it really helps us to understand the multidimensional nature of people’s everyday lives, but also the larger multidimensional systems that those experiences are embedded in,” Professor Pieterse explained.  

‘Adaptive consent’

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi gave his assessment, describing the figures as eye-opening.

Lesufi said crime impacted every facet of government’s attempts to develop and added that stabilising local government was key to making improvements.

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The premier said that funding was a challenge, claiming the province “took a bullet” for residents in paying off the e-toll debts.

To overcome funding challenges, Lesufi touted the concept of “adaptive consent”, explaining that residents’ consumer choices should usurped by an obligation to the state.

“Our citizens prefer to pay for other services besides the basic services,” he said.

For example, for the SABC to be strong is it not proper consent from our citizens that before you enrol for Netflix, it must be compulsory to pay for a TV licence for SABC,” stated the premier.

The premier and his executive will examine the QoL survey results in their upcoming engagements.