INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Cape Town is leading the country’s local authorities in providing basic services to households and the Western Cape is the top province in service provision.

This is according to a monitoring project for the period 2001 to 2007 by the national Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), the Business Trust and the University of Stellenbosch.

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato said the city was “very proud” of its number one ranking but warned there was “much room for improvement”.

“By any measure, this municipality has much to be proud of in the way in which it contributes to the day-to-day well-being of residents. We will not, however, rest on our laurels – we can and will do better,” he said.

The uHabs Index – an acronym for the monitoring of universal household access to four basic services (water, sanitation, refuse and waste removal, and electricity and energy) – has been compiled as a 2009 baseline measure so that the department can track levels of access to basic services and how these are changing over time.

It is one of the tools that the national government plans to use to help meet its commitment to halving poverty and unemployment by 2014, and also deliver universal access to these four basic services by this date.

The uHabs Index is based on an analysis of Statistics SA data (censuses, community survey 2007 and general household surveys), and data from the Demarcation Board and poverty data from Stats SA interpreted by the University of Stellenbosch.

It defines the poverty line as R5 350 per capita per year as at February 2007 (R3 864 in 2000 prices).

According to the report, none of the nine provinces scored more than 90 percent in terms of universal access to all four basic services in 2007.

Western Cape, Gauteng, Northern Cape and Free State scored between 60 percent and 89 percent. North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal scored between 30 percent and 59 percent, while Limpopo came in last at significantly less than 30 percent.

The Western Cape ranked first, with 88 percent universal basic access and 83 percent universal higher access. (See accompanying box for an explanation of “basic” and “higher”.)

The corresponding figures for Gauteng are 79 and 75 percent; Northern Cape 71 and 62 percent; Free State 60 and 53 percent; KwaZulu-Natal 45 and 38 percent; Mpumalanga 40 and 34 percent; North West 38 and 34 percent; Eastern Cape 33 and 29 percent; and Limpopo 15 and 13 percent.

Overall for South Africa, 40 percent of the 12,4 million households (47,37 million individuals) were below the poverty line in 2007. Just 54 percent of these households enjoyed universal basic access to all four services, while 49 percent had higher access to all four.

The 129 448km2 Western Cape had 1,38 million households in 2007, with 24 percent living below the poverty line.

Some 99 percent of these households had basic access to water and 91 percent higher access to water; 93 and 92 percent respectively for sanitation; 95 and 90 percent for refuse collection; and 95 and 95 per

cent for electricity.

Cape Town ranked first among the 52 district and metropolitan municipalities and was the only one with a performance level above 90 percent for universal access to basic services.

But 24 percent, or a shade under one quarter, of the 921 560 households in the city were below the poverty line in 2007.

All Cape Town households had basic access to water and 91 percent had higher access; 94 percent basic and 93 percent higher access to sanitation; 98 percent and 94 percent respectively for refuse collection; and both 95 percent for electricity.

Overall, 91 percent of households had basic access to all four services, while 87 percent had higher access to all four.

Vuyelwa Qinga Vika, spokeswoman for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka, said the report contained no surprises.

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille said: “… It’s good to put things into perspective for the bigger picture, especially in the context of where people talk about ‘service delivery’ protests”.

“The question is: ‘Are things better or worse?’ I believe we’re going in the right direction, but we can only go step by step.”

Top five ranking:

The Western Cape’s five district municipalities all feature in the list of the top 10 district and metropolitan municipalities in the country, according to the uHABS Index.

The Overberg district municipality ranks 2nd after Cape Town, the Central Karoo 4th, West Coast 6th, Cape Winelands 7th and Eden district municipality 10th overall.

The City of Johannesburg ranks 3rd nationally, Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth) 5th, Namakwa (Springbok) in the Northern Cape 8th, and Fezile Dabi in the Free State (centred on Sasolburg) 9th.

The Frances Baard district council (including Kimberley) in the Northern Cape comes in at 13th nationally, eThekwini metro (Durban) 14th and the City of Tshwane (Pretoria)17th.

Limpopo’s five local authorities are ranked 29, 44, 47, 48 and 51 respectively, while those in the Eastern Cape are 5, 16, 32, 40, 42, 50 and 52.

The worst-performing local authority - at both national and provincial level - is the Alfred Nzo district council, in the Eastern Cape, where 68 percent of the 153 000 households were below the poverty line in 2007. Just 2 percent had universal access to all four basic services and just 1 percent had higher access.

john.yeld@inl.co.za - Cape Argus