Understanding the performance of South African municipalities: a public perspective

Abstract

This study examines public opinion with regards to municipal performance which is measured in terms of the Batho Pele principles that require municipal officials to be polite, open and transparent and to deliver good services. Our quantitative analysis used data from the South African Social Attitude Survey (SASAS) series, a long-term nationally representative survey of adults aged 16 and older. There are eight Batho Pele ("People First") principles that measure municipal performance. The preliminary results of the Batho Pele Index (BPI) reveals that there was large scale (2007-2020) public dissatisfaction with the way municipalities consult communities on basic services. Municipalities were perceived not to respond quickly to citizens' complaints about service delivery problems and fixing of problems reported to them. The BPI mean score corroborated these findings with a dissatisfaction trend (2007-2020) of 40% less likely satisfaction. This study seeks to suggest salient strategies that can be adopted to ensure excellence in municipal performance and to inform policy-makers accordingly