Most South Africans have better access to housing, water, electricity and food but are less satisfied about the quality of public services they receive than they used to be. This statement results from this year’s General Household.The survey findings, which are based on face-to-face surveys with more than 25 000 households, could help explain why while government service delivery indicators are improving, public dissatisfaction in the form of protests and strikes is also on the rise.The results were recently presented by Statistics South Africa deputy director-general Kefiloe Masiteng. The General Household Survey has been performed since 2002 to measure the performance of programmes that aim to enhance the development and living conditions of people. In recent years, it has started to track levels of satisfaction with the quality of services. According to the survey more than 16% of people living in “RDP houses” complained about the quality, stating their houses had weak roofs and walls.The survey also indicates that access to piped water also improved, from 84.9% of households to 90.8% last year. But people have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of water. When this question was first asked in 2005, 76.4% of households said they were satisfied while only 60.1% rated the quality good last year.
Only 57.3% of people canvassed who used public health facilities stated they were “very satisfied”, with 12.8% expressing some or a lot of dissatisfaction.