CAPÍTULO II: MARCO TEÓRICO
2.6. Marco Orientador de la Propuesta
The 2008 COSATU Workers’ Survey shows a decline in workers’ perceptions of access to government services such as health, education and housing. As Table 7.1 below shows, for union members the expectations of 1994 have not been fully realised in most of the services, with the notable exception of access to water and electricity. Perceptions of access to education have been consistently declining since 1998. What is significant is that, for the majority of services, COSATU members’ expectations of democracy as documented in the 1994 COSATU Workers’ Survey have not been met. There is, therefore, a contradiction between what members expected in 1994 (the advent of democracy) and the reality of their experiences in 2008 (after more than a decade of democracy).
Table 7.1 Worker expectations in 1994 and assessment of access to services, 1998, 2004 and 2008
Service area 1994 (%) 1998 (%) 2004 (%) 2008 (%)
Better housing 91 51 61 57.6
Access to clean water 82 87 87 83.9
Access to electricity 72 88 87 82.2
Better transport (not asked) 63 61 57.2
Access to better health care 87 71 58 56.0
Access to education & training 90 68 68 64.4
As Table 7.1 shows, workers’ expectations of access to health care and housing have significantly declined. These findings are consistent with data gathered by other studies. For example, qualitative research into housing service delivery in gauteng offers explanations why delivery in housing is not improving and is generating criticism by citizens. lack of consultation, slow pace of delivery, corruption and lack of transparency are cited by communities as reasons for the lack of community access to housing. In a study conducted
in several communities in gauteng, disgruntled community members stated the following reasons for their dissatisfaction with housing delivery:
I did not vote for a flat, I voted for a house. They gave me a flat and I do not want it. I am old and do not want to be going up and down these stairs all my life. (Interview: M Sithole)
Too many things are wrong with this house. look, the roof is leaking, there are cracks everywhere. On the day of allocation, I told them that there was a problem with the window. The project manager said it will be fixed the following day. They never came to fix it. (Interview: V Wezi)
The project took long to start. I remember the MeC came here after people took to the streets. At that time, the issue was not housing but about toilets. She came here and promised us more than a thousand houses. That was in 2003, I think. The project only started in 2008. Officials kept on saying they are waiting for eAs [environmental Assessments]. They took too long. (Interview: T Tshabangu)
Similarly, in 2008, most COSATU union members expressed dissatisfaction with service delivery offered by local government. When presented with the statement, ‘local government service delivery in my area is satisfactory and effective’ , 31 per cent disagreed, while 24 per cent strongly disagreed. Significantly, 12 per cent of the workers answered, ‘don’t know’ , while only 22 per cent agreed and 11 per cent strongly agreed with the statement. Therefore, the majority of union members (55 per cent) were not satisfied with the services they received.
The foregoing discussion raises another dimension to service delivery, namely, that it is problematic to measure service delivery only in quantitative terms (that is, counting the number of households with access). Service provision has a qualitative dimension, too, as the quality of the services is crucial for long-term sustainability of services and, indeed, of municipal assets. Citizens’ satisfaction with services has to do with both the number of people who have access to the services as well as the quality of these services. Thus, access to electricity does not mean much, when there are power cuts every winter season because the main power sub-station has not been serviced. Access to a house does not mean much, if the house was built using poor quality materials, or
if the workmanship was of a poor standard. In reality, these problems are, at present, found in many municipalities where the authorities have been struggling to, for example, produce maintenance plans, maintain asset registers and prioritise their budgets accordingly (National Treasury 2008).
At provincial level, union members’ perceptions of declining access to services reveals a different picture to that presented by national government statistics. The StatsSA Community Survey shows that of all nine provinces, gauteng and Western Cape have relatively high access to services (StatsSA 2007b). However, Table 7.2 shows that COSATU members’ perceptions of access to services in the Western Cape were very low, even when compared to the other provinces. The reason for the discrepancy between official statistics and union member perceptions is that national and provincial statistics often use methods of measurement that are incapable of capturing local realities and dynamics. A more plausible argument is the one that acknowledges service delivery problems due to do the government’s inability to provide services in townships and rural areas because of lack of capacity in terms of skills, staff and financial resources (Department of Cooperative governance and Traditional Affairs 2009). Furthermore, with regard to the Western Cape, the attitudes of COSATU union members to service delivery might be influenced by provincial party politics. For example, it might be contended that COSATU members, the majority of whom vote in favour of the African National Congress (ANC), would not be happy with service delivery in the Western Cape, where another political party is in power. This would partly explain their views on lack of service delivery in that province.
Table 7.2 Perception of access to services by province, 2008
Area Gauteng (%) West (%)North KwaZulu-Natal (%) Cape (%)Eastern Cape (%)Western
Better housing 59.5 66.7 61.9 62.4 40.2
Access to clean water 86.9 85.7 82.3 85.0 76.0 Access to electricity 87.0 58.7 80.5 80.2 73.4
Access to land 45.1 57.1 44.6 45.8 28.1
Access to a landline telephone 64.0 52.4 64.6 73.7 70.2
Better transport 61.4 66.7 54.0 60.2 43.5
Access to better health care 59.8 60.0 56.3 60.6 38.3 Access to education and training 68.0 90.5 59.6 69.2 47.9
Another important argument is that service delivery trends amongst union members are influenced by affordability of these services for workers, who are either employed in relatively secure jobs and have a regular wage, or are in insecure jobs and earn relatively low wages. The income levels of the majority of COSATU members and their households are often too low to enable them to afford some services, but also too high to qualify for reduced tariffs such as government’s exemption policies. This makes them ineligible for inclusion in the indigent register, where the maximum income level is often calculated at two social pension grants (r2040) per month per household. Such income requirements and means tests are unrealistic, as they do not take into cognisance the burden employed workers carry by taking care of unemployed family members. Similarly, McDonald and Pape conclude that their research findings on service delivery in South Africa, ‘offer a picture of post-apartheid service delivery that is at best plagued by affordability problems and overly aggressive bureaucrats bent on recovering costs, and at worst, a deep failure on the part of government (both local and national) to ensure an affordable supply of essential services to all’ (McDonald & Pape 2002:176).
Table 7.3 Yes, these services have improved since 2004 elections.
Number %
Access to clean water 510 83.9
Access to electricity 498 82.2
Better wages 178 29.2
Jobs/employment 176 29
Clean and healthy living and working environment 385 63.5 HIV/AIDS treatment, education and support 390 64.1
generally, union members think that there has been an improvement in access to most of the services since the 2004 elections, particularly clean water and electricity (Tables 7.2 and 7.3). But the tables also show that there are areas of great dissatisfaction, such as education, health, jobs, land, transport, housing and wages. These perceptions about service delivery are informed by both access to these services as well as the quality of the services.
Table 7.4 In which ONE of the following areas would you like to see improvements after the 2009 elections? Select the most important one only.
Service area sampleAll in Gauteng (%) West (%)North KwaZulu-Natal (%) Cape (%)Eastern Cape (%)Western
Higher wages 28.2 31.2 28.6 33.3 21.6 23.0
employment/jobs 20.9 17.7 14.3 13.5 40.8 11.5 Better housing 15.5 15.6 19.0 13.5 9.6 25.3 HIV/AIDS treatment,
education and support 13.0 14.3 14.3 17.1 9.6 10.3
Access to land 3.8 5.2 0.0 2.7 4.0 2.3
Access to better
health care 4.2 3.9 0.0 4.5 4.0 5.7
Better transport 1.4 1.3 0.0 2.7 0.0 2.3
Access to clean water 1.0 0.4 9.5 2.7 0.0 0.0 Access to electricity 0.9 1.3 9.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
Union members were asked to select the area where they would most like to see improvement after the elections in 2009. Table 7.4 shows that union members across the provinces (28 per cent) prioritised improvement in wages over access to services. Although many are probably aware that wage increases are not a matter for the government to determine, but are subject to negotiation between unions and management, they still chose to prioritise it. What is significant is that unionised workers, most of them in permanent jobs, are concerned about the state of the economy, particularly unemployment. As a result, many COSATU members had high expectations of the government creating more jobs. The provision of housing also came up high on the list of priorities the union members identified for the government after the elections in 2009. When the data is cross-tabulated by province, there were some prominent differences regarding the service that union members would most like to see prioritised for improvement after 2009. Access to better housing was identified as the most important issue amongst union members in the Western Cape (25 per cent), followed by those in the North West (19 per cent). Better wages was identified as a priority by union members in KwaZulu-Natal (33 per cent), followed by union members in gauteng (31 per cent). Job creation was most significant for union members in the eastern Cape (41 per cent), followed by union members in gauteng (18 per cent). Finally, HIV/AIDS treatment, education and support was a major concern for union members
in KwaZulu-Natal (17 per cent), and both North West and gauteng, at 14 per cent each.
The most interesting aspect of the findings in Table 7.4 is that a large number of union members want jobs and better wages above, for example, water and better transport. even though no qualitative explanation was provided, it cannot be assumed that these union members have access and therefore do not require these services. A likely explanation is that union members believe that it is better to have a job that pays well than access to water, electricity and land. This is especially true if all of these services require a regular income, as they come at a cost for those who access them. Therefore, on its own, access to a service is not adequate. As argued earlier, the biggest question is no longer whether households have access to services, but whether they can afford the services. Indeed, without a regular job and good income, access to services or service delivery is undermined.