Reasons for the disparity? Beyond basic needs

It is also possible that residents know what they are getting from government by way of basic services, and are broadly happy with this, but expect more. Put differently, in relatively well-serviced Gauteng the legitimacy of government is increasingly dependent on performance beyond the basic needs agenda.

Satisfaction with local government for those with, and those without access to adequate electricity, sanitation, waste removal and water services.

Electricity Sanitation Waste removal Water

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How do we account for the very low levels of satisfaction with government, when compared to reasonably high levels of satisfaction with the services that government provides?

There are three possible explanations:

Poor government communication;
Residents wanting more than just basic services from government;
Unhappiness with corruption and a poor public service ethic

Using QoL Survey data we can compare the satisfaction levels with local government depending on whether the respondent’s household is well served or not. The results show that those without access to basic services have much higher levels of dissatisfaction than those with access. The results are almost identical across water, electricity, sanitation and waste.

However a relatively small proportion of households in Gauteng do not have adequate access to basic service, and even those with good access are dissatisfied. So while extending services to more households will help, only providing more taps and electricity connections won’t be enough to improve overall satisfaction levels.