As perceptions around service delivery drop, what are the real key issues?

In a survey of 2 000 residents of South Africa's metropolitan areas conducted in February 2011 and released today, TNS Research Surveys (Pty) Ltd, South Africa's leading marketing and social insights company, revealed that the proportion of people in South Africa's seven major metro areas who are unhappy with the service delivery they receive from their local authority or municipality rose from 51% in November 2010 to 58% in February.  This is a significant change and suggests that perceptions are worsening in the run-up to the next week's local government elections.

On a more positive note, 36% are satisfied with the service delivery they receive (down from 41% in November) whilst 6% gave a "don't know" response.

The results show strong differences by area:

It is clear that perceptions have worsened considerable in Gauteng, especially Pretoria and the East Rand, and East London and Bloemfontein.

Further comparisons with 2010 data show that perceptions have worsened amongst blacks (54% to 61%) and whites (44% to 52%), other race groups showing much smaller shifts.  As a result, virtually all demographics show a worsening of perceptions.

What are the real issues at hand?

As a result of this decline as well as the importance of service delivery to the local government elections, TNS undertook a more detailed follow-up survey in the middle two weeks of March to look at specific issues of true import to residents.

First, people were asked to select the three most pressing issues in order (from a list of 12) that their local municipality should address.  The results highlight needs that often go beyond the local level and show the stress that people face at a more holistic level.  The top two concerns are very close together:

1. Support job creation (66% of mentions  with 25% of people placing this in first place)

2. Prevent crime (60% of mentions with 27% putting this first)

Job creation was more often mentioned in first place by blacks (29%) and coloureds (26%) than Indians/Asians (21%) and whites (15%), but crime was highlighted in first place more by whites (41%) followed by coloureds and Indians/Asians at 30% and blacks at 22%.  It was also a particular mention on the East Rand and in East London.  Since crime prevention occurs at metro level as well as at provincial and national level, this may be a concern that traverses all tiers of government.

3. Next came the need to provide housing (44% of mentions with 15% putting it first), especially amongst blacks (19% put this first) compared with 18% for Indians/Asians, 15% for coloureds and just 2% for whites.  People in Soweto (22% here put this first) were particularly vocal.

How people live has been a strong focus of much of the campaigning in recent weeks, with many politicians expressing dismay over people's living conditions.  The call by people for better living conditions has also been the subject of many protests - and disappointment at its slow pace of delivery (for example, Sweetwaters).

4. At a 29% mention with 7% putting it first came the need to provide education and training - especially on the East Rand.

5. Keeping roads maintained received a 23% mention with 6% putting this as top of their needs to be addressed - 10% for whites, and 5% for other race groups.  For Bloemfontein, the Vaal Triangle/South Rand and Soweto residents, this is a higher concern than for other areas.

6. The issuing of accurate billings and rates accounts was mentioned by 20% of people (8% putting this first - 12% for whites and Indians/Asians, 7% for coloureds and 6% for blacks)).  Not surprisingly perhaps, this was high for Johannesburg and West Rand residents - and also for those in Port Elizabeth.

7. The provision of electricity was mentioned by 16% of people, but only 4% gave this as a top priority - there were no demographic or regional differences on this issue.

8. The provision of water, mentioned by 10% overall and by 2% in top place completes the list of top concerns - this was, however, given by 15% in top place in Bloemfontein.

Other concerns at the lower end of the list include the need for recreational facilities (10% of mentions), the provision of refusal removal (7%), the need for street lighting (7%), and the need for public transport (5%).

There are no gender differences in any of these 12 these issues.  Younger people do slightly emphasise the need for education and training (11% put this first) but other age differences are not evident. 

In line with the race differences noted above, housing is greater concern to poor people - and 36% of those living in informal dwellings put this as their top need form their local authority, higher than any other need.  This goes a long way to explaining the potential for violence when it comes to the need to improve living conditions.

Other demographic differences are -

• Amongst the unemployed, the need for jobs (29% put this first), the prevention of crime (25%) and the need for housing (20%) are the top three needs.
• Amongst those with tertiary education or post-matric qualifications, the main need by far is for crime prevention - an important issue if South Africa is to keep its skilled people.

How do local authorities score on these issues?

People were asked to score their municipality on how well it did on each issue.  The scale used was 1 = poor to 5 = excellent with scale midpoint of three.  The table below reflects the proportion of people giving a score of one or two - a net negative perception.

In general, a negative proportion of 30% or more reflects a very serious problem.  Some scores are truly very high and are of great concern - these have been highlighted in italics bold. 

The job issue is by far the most poorly rated throughout and especially in coastal areas.  Crime is an issue on the East Rand and in coastal areas whilst housing gets particularly poor ratings on the East Rand and in Cape Town and East London.  Education and training is poorly rated in Port Elizabeth in particular whilst road maintenance is worst in Bloemfontein, the East Rand and is generally higher in Gauteng than in coastal areas.  

Our take-out

Concerns that can transcend local issues are evident in the issues that people feel need addressing the most - supporting job creation and the need for education and training are the most obvious of these.  However, the way people live in terms of their housing conditions are very high on the list of pressing needs that should be resolved - again, to some extent this transcends the purvey of local authorities only but is clearly an emotive issue, especially for shack dwellers for whom it is their top priority by far.

Whilst the review of pressing needs gives a sense of the relative priorities of the various issues, the ratings data is uniformly bad to very bad almost regardless of the priorities.  This does indeed explain why service delivery perceptions have declined between November 2010 and February.

Discussion

The data clearly suggests that, whilst the three tiers of government have very specific roles, this may not be how citizens see it.  This in turn suggests that people are not aware of what their municipality can - and cannot - deliver.  Importantly, this suggests that people see service delivery as the responsibility of the government as a whole, regardless of the tier that may actually be responsible for such delivery, as this delivery impacts on people's daily lives.

From 1994 to 2010, the housing backlog has grown from 1.5 million to over 2.1 million, meaning that some 12 million people still need adequate housing - the housing situation is indeed dire.  President Zuma a year ago promised the residents of Sweetwater action in three months - and they still wait.  He recently visited KwaMashu in Durban as part of his election campaign ‘where people live in squalid conditions'. The president visited a two-room house where 25 people lived.  In response to this, the President acknowledged that it was ‘unacceptable that people still lived in poor conditions' 17 years after democracy, and he laid the responsibility fully at the door of the local municipality - but this is also a provincial and national responsibility.

It is issues that affect how people live their daily lives that will affect how they vote in this election - whether that issue is a local, provincial or national responsibility

Appendix

People were asked to score their municipality on how well it did on each issue.  The scale used was 1 = poor to 5 = excellent.  The figures below give the means on this scale.  For ease of interpretation, a minimum score of 4.0 would represent a satisfactory score.  A score of 4.5 would be very good and difficult to beat.  On the other hand, a score of 3.5 or less would be unacceptable.  The scale midpoint is 3.0.

• On job creation, the overall score at 2.1 is very poor - and it falls even lower in coastal areas. 
• On crime prevention, only one area - West Rand - obtains a score over the scale midpoint - but it is still below 3.5.  Coastal areas are again very poor with the overall average being 2.4.
• On the provision of housing, a poor mean of 2.6 was recorded with only the West rand and Bloemfontein over the scale midpoint - Bloemfontein almost reaching the minimum acceptable score of 3.5 at 3.4.
• On the provision of education and training, the mean is 2.9 with Gauteng reaching 3.2.  The Eastern Cape achieved the lowest scores.
• Road maintenance achieved a mean of 2.8 with Cape Town reaching the scale mid-point of 3.0, as well as Johannesburg excl Soweto, the West Rand and Port Elizabeth.
• The billing issue achieved a score of 2.7.  Only the West rand achieved a score over 3.5 at 3.7.

Overall, this is a dismal record.

Technical note

The studies were conducted amongst a sample of 2 000 adults (1260 blacks, 385 whites, 240 coloureds and 115 Indians/Asians) in the seven major metropolitan areas: they have a margin of error of under 2.5% for the results found for the total sample.  The studies were conducted by TNS Research Surveys (Pty) Ltd as part of their ongoing research into current social and political issues and were funded by TNS Research Surveys. 

Statement issued by Neil Higgs, TNS Research Surveys, May 12 2011

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