Assessing service delivery: public perception of municipal service delivery in South Africa

Abstract

Existing research reveals that there has been increasing community impatience related to basic municipal service delivery in developing countries, for example, South Africa. Many scholars have argued that the rise in service delivery protests in South Africa can be attributed to organisational failure to provide satisfactory basic services because many communities remain unserviced. This article investigates citizen satisfaction with basic municipal service delivery in South Africa and analyses citizen perceptions thereof based on the South African Social Attitude Survey. The study is quantitative in nature. The findings reveal that citizen dissatisfaction with service delivery is influenced by factors such as perceptions of relative deprivation and inequality, unfulfilled political promises, uneven access to services, provision of substandard services and high levels of poverty including disparities which emanate from the post-apartheid regime. The article is relevant at this point because many African municipalities are facing similar service delivery challenges.