Best and worst municipalities in South Africa

A new survey shows a general dissatisfaction for municipal services across eight of the largest SA metropolitan municipalities in South Africa. How does Nelson Mandela Bay stack up...?

According to the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi), consumers gave their municipalities the lowest satisfaction score of 61.8 out of 100, although up slightly from a score of 60.8 in 2015.

The score is significantly lower than the average satisfaction scores across 14 private sector industries reported by SAcsi.

The SAcsi surveyed 3,059 residents in a randomly selected, sample comprising residents in the major municipal districts:

 

Overall, Cape Town scored significantly higher than the average at 71.9 while eThekwini scored 3.6 points higher than the municipal average at 65.4 out of 100.

Tshwane and Johannesburg scored on par with the average at 61.5 (2014: 57.4) and 60.2 (2014: 57.5) respectively.

All the other measured municipal districts scored below industry par: Ekurhuleni (58.3), Nelson Mandela Bay (51.8), Mangaung (51.5) and Buffalo City (47.1).

“Overall the national trust index score is slightly higher this year at 65.1, which means that citizens are a bit more trusting of what they are hearing from municipalities, likely as a result of delivery on promises,” said Prof. Adré Schreuder, founder of SAcsi and CEO of Consulta.

Cape Town recorded the benchmark trust score of 72.6, followed by eThekwini (67), Johannesburg (65.9) and Ekurhuleni (63.5). Tshwane (63), Nelson Mandela Bay (58), Mangaung (56.1) and Buffalo City (50.3) scored below par.

Schreuder warned that citizen expectations are higher this year, which creates a higher standard for municipalities to meet. “Campaigning ahead of the municipal elections next year is likely to push expectations even higher, so municipalities need to put mechanisms in place to ensure that they can deliver on the promises they make to citizens.

“Already, the gap between expectations and delivery on quality is very wide, with Cape Town emerging in the study as the only municipality which comes close to meeting its citizens’ expectations. Municipalities which scores below par (Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung and Buffalo City) recorded very low reliability scores,” he said.

Complaints

According to SAcsi, the level of complaints in municipalities is extremely high compared to other industries, with around one in three respondents reporting that they have experienced some sort of problem.

“The good news is that complaints handling has improved in most municipalities,” it said.

The key drivers of citizen satisfaction are also the issues which feature in complaints about the worst performing municipalities.

“The top three issues revolve around keeping municipal areas neat and tidy, maintaining existing infrastructure and providing reliable services. The verbatim comments from respondents lead us to conclude that citizen-centricity, reliability and trust that services will be delivered as promised are essential,”

“As much as these comments feature as positive statements about better performing municipalities, citizens in the worst performing municipalities complain about the lack of delivery of municipal services such as refuse removal, deteriorating roads, problems with storm water drainage pipes and providing clean drinking water,” Schreuder said.

 

Source: http://businesstech.co.za/news/general/103167/best-and-worst-municipalities-in-south-africa/