A survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres, reported in the Sunday Times this week, shows that:
More than half of all urban South Africans are dissatisfied with the service they get from their local municipalities.
Cope is not surprised at these findings. We are all aware of the terrible state of local government in this country. Sadly, the people who suffer the most because of this inefficiency are the poor. Last year municipalities spent only 89% of the R11 billion allocated as part of the municipal infrastructure grants, MIGs. The availability of capital is not as much of a problem as corruption and a serious skills shortage.
Since 1994, the number of engineers employed by government has shrunk by nearly two thirds, while the population served has increased almost fourfold. Before 1994, 5 100 engineers served 14 million people outside of the former homelands. Today, an estimated 1 800 engineers serve almost 47 million people.
More alarming is the fact that in 2010 only 30 municipalities were functional in terms of municipal water services provision, while 110 were dysfunctional. Of these, 23 municipalities were in a critical situation.
Municipalities are distrusted for many reasons. In Johannesburg, unreliable billing, as well as the inability to collect money owed to municipalities and to spend their budgets correctly meant that service delivery was severely compromised. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]