The sad fact of access to government services depending largely on locality
It’s a sad fact of South African life that a household’s access to government services depends largely on its locality. The same goes for private companies.
Running a business in Cape Town, the country’s top-ranked metropolitan municipality, is an entirely different proposition to running one in Mahikeng, the bottom-ranked district municipality.
No doubt there are even bigger local government challenges in Siyathemba and !kheis, the two lowest-ranked small town municipalities according to the Good Governance Africa 2024 Governance Performance Index.
Municipal budget is another notable determinant of service efficiency, but the fate of households and businesses is to a large extent also in the hands of municipal staff, for better or worse, with some employees fit for public office, and others not.
A newsflash this week illustrated why Cape Town, with its emphasis on innovation and ‘future-proofing’, regularly ranks top in local government performance indicators. The City has launched a Data Strategy aimed at ‘catapulting service delivery into the digital age’, the first strategy of its kind in Africa according to the latest City press release. It’s a strategy aimed at making a broad data spectrum available to residents, and includes detailed information such as infrastructure maps and water quality readings. Not only will this deepen our democracy by allowing open access to data informing public policy decisions, it promotes innovation by expanding the pool of shared data informing research and development.
Other recent City of Cape Town initiatives include a strategy to attract digital nomads, who bring expertise and foreign currency, and using sophisticated digital technology including AI to combat crime.
The Mother City has its fair share of problems and there is no proverbial ‘silver bullet’ to slay all service delivery gremlins. However Cape Town should be commended for proactive interventions that make a tangible and immediate positive impact, for business and households alike.
John Lawson
CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry