The leader of the Democratic Alliance in Johannesburg, councillor Mike Moriarty, said in a statement on Wednesday that an independent survey has shown there has been no improvement in customer satisfaction levels regarding service provided in the city.
In fact, he said, there has been a marginal decline in residents’ satisfaction levels, compared with 2003.
A report produced by the Palmer Development Agency showed that only 45,1% of residents indicated satisfaction with the job done by the Johannesburg city council in 2004, compared with 49,3% in 2003.
Moriarty said: ”This contradicts the assertion made by the city manager, Mr Pascal Moloi, last week.”
He added: ”In many ways, this independent survey confirms issues raised by the DA in its annual report card on the performance of the city.”
The report indicates that residents of Johannesburg are critical of a variety of services. These include revenue and billing as well as street-sweeping and litter-picking.
The top problems experienced by Johannesburg residents were identified as unemployment, crime, health care, housing, HIV/Aids, access to basic services and corruption.
”Alarmingly, 63,5% of residents believe there to be significant corruption in the city council. There was also a clear indication that people were generally dissatisfied with a lack of bylaw enforcement,” Moriarty said.
”The report also said that in those areas that used the call centre, respondents were more often unhappy with their experience. This was particularly true of medium-sized businesses,” he added.
In conclusion, Moriarty said it is now more important than ever ”that the mayor should take note of the issues raised and tackle the problems head on”.
”It is not good enough to announce that ‘we have a plan’. Plans must be implemented. Those who cannot manage their portfolios and produce the goods should be removed,” he said. — I-Net Bridge