The sixth South African Citizen Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) shows that citizen satisfaction and trust in municipal service delivery is at an all time low.
The SA-csi 2019 index, conducted by Consulta, showed that citizens are unhappy with service delivery in SA’s Metropolitan municipalities, namely: Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane. “Overall, the results show that expectations are very far from being met, and that there are significant gaps in expectations versus the perceived quality of service delivery that citizens experience. “In this year’s results, all metros experienced a drop in overall scores, with some metros showing massive decline and deterioration in citizen satisfaction,” explains Professor Adré Schreuder, SA-csi Founder and Chairperson. The index interviewed 2506 random people across the metros, who represented the resident demographics in each metro. Of the eight metros polled, Cape Town once again emerged as the category leader on overall citizen satisfaction for large metros for the sixth consecutive year. It got a whopping 64.1 out of a possible 100. This means that they came 10.1 index points above the average satisfaction score of 54 and leading well ahead of all other metros. Ekurhuleni and eThekwini follow with scores on par to industry average, with 55.7 and 55.5 respectively. They were followed by Tshwane at 51.3, Nelson Mandela Bay at 50.5 and Johannesburg with 49.9, all coming in below par. Buffalo City ‘s 43.4 and Mangaung, with 40.5 came in dramatically below par, and thus performed at 10.6 and 13.5 index points below industry average respectively.Notably, Nelson Mandela Bay showed a dramatic decline of 11.4 index points in overall satisfaction compared with its previous year’s score of 61.9 – this could be the impact of leadership upheaval which beset the metro during 2018.
For the second consecutive year, Mangaung has recorded the lowest satisfaction score in the history of the citizen satisfaction index – since it started in 2014 – even declining further on its last year’s score. To classify the citizen perception of performance of their municipalities into the categories “Leader, On Par or Below Par”, Consulta compares the scores to establish verifiable, statistical significance. Cape Town remains the undisputed leader in terms of satisfaction scores year on year, albeit with a marginal drop of 1.1 index points compared with 2018. Most notable is that the gap between Cape Town and all other metros continues to widen over the years. Cape Town also has the smallest gap between what citizens expect and what they perceive in terms of actual delivery.Key findings of the 2019 SA Citizen Satisfaction Survey:
- The overall satisfaction level, as an average across all metros, has declined to its lowest level yet at 54 in 2019, compared with 61.9 in 2015. All municipalities have produced a lower performance from last year and not a single metro has shown improvement. In reality the score indicates that citizen satisfaction levels are nowhere near being met in certain metros.
- The overall satisfaction score is heavily influenced by the big gaps in the citizen expectation versus perceived quality. This is the measure of what citizens expect, versus what they actually experience in terms of service delivery.
- This gap between expectations and actual delivery is widening across all metros to varying degrees, however Buffalo City and Mangaung show shocking disparities – on this index Mangaung and Buffalo City show disturbing gaps of -22.2 and -23 index points between expectations and delivery respectively.
- In terms of specific problems with service delivery, citizens highlight water supply and management, as well as handling of water-related complaints as the bulk of mentions. This is followed by electricity, rates and account, water billing and messy street.
