Most residents and businesses are satisfied with the overall performance of the City of Cape Town, according to a survey.
|||Cape Town - Most Cape Town residents and businesses are satisfied with the overall performance of the City of Cape Town, according to findings in the latest community satisfaction survey.
The survey measured public perceptions of the city’s delivery of services across the metro.
The results were revealed by mayor Patricia de Lille on Tuesday. She said that overall 69 percent of residents and 87 percent of businesses were satisfied. The survey, which used a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest) was undertaken by TNS on behalf of the city last August to November.
The city scored an average rating of 2.9 for overall performance by residents while businesses gave the city an average of 3.4.
Mark Molenaar, director of client services at TNS, said 3 000 residents and 700 businesses had taken part.
Molenaar said they used “pure random” sampling and data provided by Statistics SA to determine where in the city to conduct the survey.
De Lille said the city was one of a few municipalities in the country that used independent research to measure community satisfaction every year.
“It is heartening that the findings of the survey for the past five consecutive years reflect an increasing level of satisfaction with the city’s service delivery efforts by both residents and business.”
The average rating for the overall performance of the city by residents increased from 2.6 in 2008/9 and 2009/10, to 2.7 in 2010/11 and 2011/12, to reach 2.9 in 2012/13.
De Lille said the city felt vindicated to have independent verification that it was doing well in service delivery despite ongoing protests.
She said although there were a few people who were protesting for proper sanitation, “we have tried to explain that 82 percent of informal settlements are built in an area where it is not possible to put in toilets”.
De Lille said the city could not please everyone and some protests “are linked to people coming in here yesterday and expecting services tomorrow”.
Some areas in which residents felt the city needed to improve included road maintenance; affordability of water and electricity; enforcement of by-laws, illegal dumping; land invasions; and provision of housing.
Businesses felt the city needed to improve road maintenance around businesses, public transport, safety, and reaction time by call centre staff.
neo.maditla@inl.co.za
Cape Argus