AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF DETERMINANTS OF THE QUALITY OF MUNICIPAL SERVICE DELIVERY IN EKURHULENI

Abstract

The City of Ekurhuleni is a major metropolitan municipality that provides essential municipal services 3, 178, 470 residents and ratepayers. The purpose of research was to determine the level of satisfaction of people who live and work in the City of Ekurhuleni with the quality of municipal services they are provided with routinely. The survey was conducted by gathering household-level information from 544 residents of Ekurhuleni. The level of satisfaction of respondents with the quality of municipal services was measured by using a matrix of indicators developed by Das, Das and Barman (2021:885-913) for conducting a similar assessment. A composite index developed by D’Inverno and De Witte (2020:1129-1141) was used as a benchmark for measuring the level of services rendered to people who live in the City. The main result of the survey was that 63.05% of people who took part in the survey expressed satisfaction with the quality of services that were rendered to people living in the City. The results showed that 36.95% of people in the survey were not happy with the quality of services rendered to people who live in the City. The survey revealed that satisfaction with services was influenced by the ability of employees of the City to resolve service-related queries promptly, a lengthy duration of residence in Ekurhuleni (11 years or longer), and being provided with accurate financial statements.