Recent surveys show that Joburgers are becoming happier with their municipality.
Residents’ overall perceptions of how well the City of Johannesburg is performing has increased from 39 per cent in July last year to 53 per cent this year, according to a recent six-monthly Ipsos toll. The poll, by a global market and opinion research specialist, revealed that South Africans see much improvement in local government performance in metros one year after the municipal elections.
The city also completed its biennial customer satisfaction survey and found a rise in the city’s overall performance, from 59 per cent in 2015 to 61 per cent currently. This increase effectively turns around a downward trend in the city from 2009.
The survey aims to determine how ratepayers perceive the provision of services within the city. Since the survey tracks the performance of the city in July each year, it measures the performance of the new Democratic Alliance-led coalition government after nine months in office.
Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba said that the survey can only be regarded as ‘just the beginning of the change to come’.
The survey, according to the city, further found that:
- Residents’ overall perceptions of how well the city was performing went from 39 per cent in July last year to 53 per cent currently
- Overall perceptions of how well the city was handling the delivery of basic services, such and water and electricity, increased from 51 per cent in July last year to 59 per cent in July this year.
- Satisfaction with Metro police increased from 56 per cent in 2015 to 59 per cent this year, ultimately the first increase in this indicator since 2013
- The basic household services indicator achieved a 4 per cent point increase from 59 per cent in 2015 to 63 per cent this year.
However, residents’ satisfaction with bylaw enforcement decreased by 2 per cent from 61 per cent in 2015 to 59 per cent currently. The mayor believes the recruitment of an additional 1 500 Metro police officers and the launch of a number of municipal courts will change this.
“Where we succeed, we will work harder to achieve further on that success. Where change is not coming fast enough, we will take our communities into our confidence and work harder to achieve that change.”
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