Abstract
South Africa in general, and the Gauteng City-Region in particular, are grappling with rising service delivery protests and increasing levels of dissatisfaction with government performance. Besides internal government performance measures, citizen satisfaction surveys are useful in providing citizen-based measurement of satisfaction with service delivery and the performance of government. With 27 490 respondents across Gauteng, the 2013 Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Quality of Life (QoL) survey provides an interesting snap shot of attitudes towards government. A spatial statistical approach is applied to the 2013 QoL survey data to analyse patterns of dissatisfaction with the performance of local government. The analysis reveals spatial clustering in the level of dissatisfaction with the performance of local government. It also reveals percentage of respondents dissatisfied with dwelling, mean sense of safety index, and percentage agree the country is going in the wrong direction, as significant predictors of the level of local dissatisfaction. Other predictors include the percentage of respondents that think lack of maintenance is the biggest problem facing the community, and percentage agree that politics is waste of time. These results imply the need for incorporating spatial analysis and targeting in the formulation of policy aimed at improving government performance.
Highlights
Since the dawn of democracy in 1994, the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) has faced a mounting challenge to address housing and service infrastructure needs of a rapidly increasing population
Dissatisfaction varies across the GCR with the highest levels of dissatisfaction with local government performance visibly clustering in the Bekkersdal area (Westonaria) in the west; Sebokeng/Vanderbijlpark in the south (Emfuleni); and Alexandra wards within the City of Johannesburg at the centre of the map
The highest dissatisfaction is concentrated in the Emfuleni wards, as noted in the municipal-level maps (Figure 2), with the lowest local government performance dissatisfaction levels mainly scattered throughout the core of the GCR
Summary
Citizen satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the quality of government services varies across spatial areas and citizen satisfaction surveys can assist in revealing these variations (Kelly and Swindell, 2002a) One such dataset is the Quality of Life (QoL) survey undertaken biannually in Gauteng by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) since 2009. Considering the results at a Gauteng-level, local government scores lowest with 51.5% of respondents dissatisfied, followed by provincial government with 47.4% dissatisfaction and national government with 45.3% dissatisfaction. The section reviews government performance and measurement in South Africa and Gauteng, including service delivery protests. Kelly and Swindell (2002b) mention that race and income level could affect the way in which citizens evaluate the quantity and quality of a service rendered by local government. A number of researchers suggest that external (subjective) measures be employed as valid indicators to complement internal (objective) measures (see Parks, 1984)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
