LIFE in South Africa has not improved over the past five years, according to 44percent of the respondents polled in a study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council.
The study, published in a book called South African Social attitudes: 2nd Report, Reflections on the Age of Hope, was aimed at gauging citizen's perceptions about the provision of basic services by the government, including water, sanitation, housing and electricity as well as the state of our democracy.
The findings, gathered last year, were based on the responses of 7,000 people.
Of those, 39 percent felt life had improved between 2004 and 2009 and more than half, 57 percent, were optimistic, saying they believed the next five years would be better.
The number of those who felt that life would stay the same over that period declined to 23 percent.
The study's author, David Hemson, found that dissatisfaction with the government's delivery of services spanned across class divides.
But poorer respondents displayed the highest levels of dissatisfaction in relation to water, electricity, housing and jobs provision.
Interestingly, these respondents exhibited low levels of distrust towards local government, which had failed to provide those services.
"In other words, a sizeable number of impoverished South Africans maintain their trust in local government despite being poorly serviced and feeling aggrieved by this situation," Hemson said.
But lower income groups who had access to municipal services were also dissatisfied with them.
The paper also said that the rise of social movements and increase in the number of service delivery protests has brought about the awareness that all was not well with municipal government and service provision.
Service delivery protests - of which the financial year 2004-05 saw 5,085 legal actions and 881 illegal - were almost exclusively about the lack of basic services and fears that changes in municipal boundaries would lead to their neighbourhood's transfer to a province with a poor service delivery record.
A different study, published in the same book, showed that half of the country's 283 municipalities didn't have sufficient money to support their free basic services initiatives.
Life in SA still not better, survey finds
LIFE in South Africa has not improved over the past five years, according to 44percent of the respondents polled in a study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council.
The study, published in a book called South African Social attitudes: 2nd Report, Reflections on the Age of Hope, was aimed at gauging citizen's perceptions about the provision of basic services by the government, including water, sanitation, housing and electricity as well as the state of our democracy.
The findings, gathered last year, were based on the responses of 7,000 people.
Of those, 39 percent felt life had improved between 2004 and 2009 and more than half, 57 percent, were optimistic, saying they believed the next five years would be better.
The number of those who felt that life would stay the same over that period declined to 23 percent.
The study's author, David Hemson, found that dissatisfaction with the government's delivery of services spanned across class divides.
But poorer respondents displayed the highest levels of dissatisfaction in relation to water, electricity, housing and jobs provision.
Interestingly, these respondents exhibited low levels of distrust towards local government, which had failed to provide those services.
"In other words, a sizeable number of impoverished South Africans maintain their trust in local government despite being poorly serviced and feeling aggrieved by this situation," Hemson said.
But lower income groups who had access to municipal services were also dissatisfied with them.
The paper also said that the rise of social movements and increase in the number of service delivery protests has brought about the awareness that all was not well with municipal government and service provision.
Service delivery protests - of which the financial year 2004-05 saw 5,085 legal actions and 881 illegal - were almost exclusively about the lack of basic services and fears that changes in municipal boundaries would lead to their neighbourhood's transfer to a province with a poor service delivery record.
A different study, published in the same book, showed that half of the country's 283 municipalities didn't have sufficient money to support their free basic services initiatives.
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