The African population in Gauteng has a quality of life index score that is below the provincial average and is not catching up with white South Africans, who are seeing larger gains in measured quality of life.

This is according to the fifth edition of the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) Quality of Life Survey, a research partnership between the universities of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura noted that the survey is an important tool, used to measure citizen satisfaction and perceptions on governance, service delivery, socioeconomic development and quality of life in the province.

According to the survey for 2017/18, the African population in Gauteng scored 6.08 out of 10 in the quality of life index, which is below the provincial average of 6.30 out of ten.

Added to that, the white population in the province scored 7.30 out of ten, extending its enjoyment of a consistent long-time lead score in average of quality of life.

The survey warned that Africans were not catching up, suggesting a persistence and deepening of historical inequalities. 

Makhura said the scores reflected the high levels of inequality that continue to plague the province and said swift action was needed to tackle the problem.

Meanwhile, while the scores for the coloured and Indian/Asian populations have fluctuated in recent years, their respective scores of 6.49 and 6.96 are above the provincial average.

“Despite significant improvements in material wellbeing for previously disadvantaged groups, race remains a key determiner of overall quality of life in Gauteng,” said GCRO senior researcher Christina Culwick.

Overall, the last four surveys have shown a continued improvement in the quality of life in Gauteng.

However, there are elements such as global life satisfaction, work and sociopolitical attitudes that bring down the overall index scores.

GOVERNMENT SATISFACTION

Satisfaction with the provincial government increased to 45% from 39% in the 2016/17 survey. 

GCRO research director Graeme Götz says while this seems low, it is a notable increase as the provincial government stood out as the branch of government that respondents are most satisfied with.

National government satisfaction increased from 39% in 2015/16 to 42% in 2017/18, and local government from 35% to 38%.

Makhura said this was a remarkable feat during a time of rapid in-migration in the midst of an economic downturn.

“I’m quite pleased with the results. I commend the MECs and the mayors for the hard-work to improve the quality of life of our citizens,” he added.

SERVICES

While 61% of the province’s population was satisfied with services, the overall satisfaction across the province is decreasing over time.

Götz said although province-wide satisfaction decreased over the last three surveys, there are clear municipal variations in this trend. Satisfaction is steadily increasing in Ekurhuleni and Midvaal, while decreasing in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

However, Götz said this did not mean that satisfaction in Johannesburg and Tshwane was down across the board. Satisfaction with some services is up, but overall decline is mainly driven by lower satisfaction with government provided dwellings, services cost and billing.

There has also been a particularly striking drop in satisfaction in Emfuleni, due largely to a dramatic decline in satisfaction with waste services.

“I commend [Midvaal] mayor Bongani Baloyi and [Ekurhuleni] mayor Mzwandile Masina for their good work.  I also commend the mayors of Lesedi municipality, Johannesburg metro and Mogale City for their great efforts in ensuring that their municipalities do well in various areas of service delivery, although they are generally outperformed by Midvaal and Ekurhuleni,” said Makhura.

He added that he was concerned with the service delivery decline and regression in Tshwane, Emfuleni, Merafong and Rand West. The Premier will meet with the affected mayors in the coming weeks to discuss a recovery plan.

Click here to read all the results from the GCRO Quality of Life Survey