Cape Town – Statistician General Pali Lehohla has announced that the number of indigent households receiving basic services from municipalities increased between 2013 and 2014.
The Statistician General released the latest results of the non-financial census of municipalities in Pretoria on Tuesday.
He said the highest percentage increase was recorded for sewerage and sanitation (5.9%), followed by solid waste management (5.6%), electricity (4.6%) and water (3.9%).
“The increase is because of the updating or the upgrading of the indigenous register to ensure that those that deserve to receive free basic services receive them. The level of detail is crucial as government looks at service delivery and as government looks at “back-to-basics” to see how well it is working,” he said.
Zooming in on raw data, Lehohla said just over 12.1 million consumer units received water in 2014, compared to 11.6 million in 2013.
This represents a 3.9% increase, with the highest provincial increase being in Limpopo (6.9%), followed by the North West (5.8%), while the lowest increase was in the Free State (1.4%).
However, there was a decrease in the number of consumer units that received free basic water, from 5.1 million in 2013 to 4.6 million in 2014.
For electricity, the highest provincial increase in consumer units for the provision of electricity was recorded in Gauteng (10.6%), followed by Mpumalanga (4.5%), North West (3.5%) and Limpopo (3.3%).
Municipalities increased their provision of sewerage and sanitation by 12.4% in the Eastern Cape, 7.1% in the Free State and Mpumalanga, with the lowest increase recorded in the Western Cape (2.4%).
“What we have done is to try and provide details, information and statistics on how municipalities have functioned around service delivery,” Lehohla said.
Patrick Naidoo, Stats SA’s executive manager for government financial statistics, attributed government’s community outreach programmes as the main reason why there has been an increase in the provision of basic services to indigent households.
“In most cases, we found that municipalities went on an awareness campaign to let them know that if there are indigent consumer units that qualify to receive services they can apply,” he said.
Statistics showed that there were 3.5 million indigent households in 2014, as identified and recorded by municipalities.
Out of this, 2.5 million, or 70.6%, indigent households benefited from the indigent support system for water, while 2 million, or 58.8%, benefited from free basic electricity provided by municipalities.
The report also revealed that 2.1 million, or 60%, indigent households benefitted from the indigent support system for sewerage and sanitation.
It further recorded decreases in three of the four basic services provided to indigent households for free.
There were 495 164 consumer units that received free basic water in 2014 compared to 2013; while 163 525 less consumer units received free basic electricity in 2014 compared to the previous year. – SAnews.gov.za
