By Jonews reporter
NEARLY half of Johannesburg's residents believe municipal service delivery improved last year, an independent survey tracking the performance of the City of Johannesburg has found.
Last year marked the council's second residents' satisfaction survey, used to measure city dwellers' perceptions of service delivery and governance. The study, conducted in June 2004 by the Palmer Development Agency but only released in December, had more than 3 000 Johannesburg residents and business owners give their verdict on the efficiency of the council's services.
The number of residents who gave the council the thumbs up dropped slightly last year, but the survey shows that 45 percent believe the council is doing a good job. In 2003, 49 percent of residents felt that the council had done a "good or a very good job".
Fifty-four percent of city dwellers, according to the survey, are fairly confident of their prospects in Johannesburg this year. But this figure had also slid from the 58 percent approval rating of 2003.
"But in general, residents display a high level of confidence in the city's ability to provide them with a good quality of life relative to other cities," the survey reports.
Most residents highlighted unemployment, crime, healthcare, housing and HIV and Aids as the main problems facing Johannesburg - issues that surfaced in the 2003 survey too.
As in 2003, the survey discovered that wealthier Sandton residents and business owners gave the council one of the highest scores for service delivery and improvement. There, the residents' municipal rating shot up from 60 percent in 2003 year to 64 percent the following year.
The survey also showed that more people in Soweto and parts of Ennerdale and Orange Farm were happier with the council in 2004 than they were the previous year. Then, 46 percent of Soweto's residents gave the council the nod. That figure has soared to 66 percent in 2004.
Residents of Ennerdale and Orange Farm also welcomed improvements in their neighbourhoods, albeit on a small scale.
"While Ennerdale and Orange Farm held the worst perceptions of the municipality in 2003, they have increased significantly for the better, albeit from a low base, although still functioning at less than adequate levels on many services," said the survey.
And more than half of the businesses operating in the city, especially small enterprises, are happy with their service from the council.
But the survey shows that residents of Alexandra, Diepsloot, Diepkloof, Roodepoort and Johannesburg South are mostly unhappy with the council's work. Many point to a lack of basic services, as well as frequent water and power cuts, to justify the poor rating.
One decline was evident in Diepsloot, near Fourways. In 2003 56,3 percent of respondents rated the council's service as "good". In 2004 that figure hovered around 28 percent.
The results of the survey showed that this expansive informal settlement had the unhappiest residents. They complained about sanitation, garbage, roads, fire and ambulance services, and streetlights.
The survey recommended that all municipal services in Diepsloot - as well as in Ivory Park in Midrand, where satisfaction has also drastically declined - receive top priority.
In the survey, residents and businesses owners urge the council to solve electricity outages and billing and revenue-collection problems.
A quarter of residents had been cut off from services in the course of the year. Almost half of these residents believe the City - not a lack of payment - is to blame.
The survey acknowledged that the council faced "severe problems" in revenue and billing, but that this was an important area in which performance could improve.
The Metro Police's rating declined slightly and the survey showed that about 42 percent of city dwellers - most of them in suburbs and informal settlements - viewed Johannesburg as unsafe. Nineteen percent believed it was dangerous to live in Johannesburg.
Most Johannesburg residents felt the city's recreational centres, clinics and libraries were highly accessible - but called for cleaner public toilets, better roads and more housing.
The value of the survey, says the council, lies in the noticeable performance improvement in many of the areas and services identified as huge problems in the 2003 survey.
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