Consulta and SA-csi\u00a0have\u00a0released their latest barometer focusing on South African municipalities.<\/p>\n
The barometer focuses on citizen satisfaction and trust in the metro municipalities – focusing on the main metros of Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane.<\/p>\n
The total sample size was 2,287, with random interviews conducted across the metros.<\/p>\n
The delivery gap between what citizens expect, and what the perceive to be receiving has resulted in an overall drop in SA-csi score from 59.3 index points in 2017 to 57.4 this year.<\/p>\n
The only metro to have increased its SA-csi score in 2018 is Nelson Mandela Bay \u2013 increasing from 59.0 to 61.9 year on year.<\/p>\n
All other municipalities have produced a lower performance from last year. Cape Town is still the leader with 65.2, while Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane are on par with the industry, despite their declines.<\/p>\n
Buffalo City and Mangaung continue to be below par, contributed to by the fact that Mangaung received the lowest ever SA-csi score of 41.1, showing a 10-index point drop from 2017.<\/p>\n
| #<\/th>\n | Municipalities<\/th>\n | 2017 score<\/th>\n | 2018 score<\/th>\n | Change<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1<\/td>\n | City of Cape Town (Western Cape)<\/td>\n | 68.5<\/td>\n | 65.2<\/td>\n | -3.3<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n| 2<\/td>\n | Nelson Mandela Bay (Eastern Cape)<\/td>\n | 59.0<\/td>\n | 61.9<\/td>\n | +2.9<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 3<\/td>\n | Ekurhuleni (Gauteng)<\/td>\n | 59.8<\/td>\n | 57.6<\/td>\n | -2.2<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\n | Average<\/em><\/td>\n | 59.3<\/em><\/td>\n | 57.4<\/em><\/td>\n | -1.9<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 4<\/td>\n | City of Tshwane (Gauteng)<\/td>\n | 57.7<\/td>\n | 56.2<\/td>\n | -1.5<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 5<\/td>\n | City of Johannesburg (Gauteng)<\/td>\n | 57.0<\/td>\n | 55.0<\/td>\n | -2.0<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 6<\/td>\n | Buffalo City (Eastern Cape)<\/td>\n | 47.2<\/td>\n | 46.2<\/td>\n | -1.0<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 7<\/td>\n | Manguang (Free State)<\/td>\n | 51.3<\/td>\n | 41.1<\/td>\n | -10.2<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n | Complaints<\/strong><\/p>\n The research showed that water accounted for 36% of all citizen complaints, with 20% about electricity.<\/p>\n Tax bills are third with 12% of complaints and road conditions at 8%. Call centre complaints are at 5%, with street lights at just below 5%.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n The overall complaint trend was stable between 2017, with Mangaung showing a significant increase in complaints \u2013 up by 8%.<\/p>\n In 2018, complaint handling performance decreased by 4 index points across the board, driven by significant declines in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Buffalo City and Tshwane.<\/p>\n Only Nelson Mandela Bay increased the performance of its complaint handling in 2018 – by 3 index points.<\/p>\n Citizen Trust<\/strong><\/p>\n Another important metric measured by the SA-csi research is Citizen Trust.<\/p>\n This measures the level of confidence that citizens have in their municipality, as well as the intent to speak positively about it.<\/p>\n This metric has decreased at an industry level – most notably in Cape Town – while stable performances were achieved in Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n “Despite the challenges in Mangaung, residents are happy to live in Bloemfontein. In Cape Town, people love to live in a beautiful city.<\/p>\n “Poor leadership and political expediency, where political gains are prioritised above the welfare of people. In certain municipalities, service delivery just doesn\u2019t seem to be a priority for the municipality.”<\/p>\n It added that it\u00a0will be interesting to see how the political events of the latter half of 2018 impact citizen perceptions of satisfaction and service delivery in 2019<\/p>\n “In fact, 2019 is an election year, so citizens could hold municipal principles to account.”<\/p>\n |