Stats SA Show Municipal Services Reaching More People Than Ever

Pretoria – The number of people that received services from municipalities increased between 2014 and 2015, says Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

Stats SA on Tuesday released the results of the Non-Financial Census of Municipalities (NMCF) for the year ended June 2015.

The NFCM measures selected aspects of service delivery, including water, electricity, solid waste management, sewerage and sanitation, among others.

“The highest percentage increase from 2014 to 2015 in the provision of services was recorded in solid waste management (5.3%), followed by electricity (4.3%), sewerage and sanitation (4.2%) and water (2.5%),” said Stats SA.

In the period 2014 to 2015, the Free State was the only province that showed an increase in the provision of the bucket toilet system. The other eight provinces showed a decrease in the provision of bucket toilets, with Gauteng province reporting zero in 2015.

Of the 10.9 million consumer units receiving electricity, 2.7 million received electricity as a free basic service from municipalities and service providers.

The Western Cape showed the highest proportion of consumer units that benefited from the free basic electricity policy (42%), followed by Gauteng (35.3%) and Eastern Cape (26.6%). Limpopo showed the lowest proportion (12.8%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (16.4%) and North West (16.9%).

According to the census, about 3.3 million consumer units received free basic sewerage and sanitation services, compared with a total of 10.9 million consumer units.

Out of nine million consumer units receiving solid waste management, 2.3 million consumer units received free basic solid waste management.

The report estimates that 12.5 million consumer units received water from municipalities. 4.6 million consumer units received free basic water.

The report also revealed how many male and female mayors there are in South Africa by province.