Gauteng Quality of Life survey revealed

25 October 2024 - Wits University

The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) released the latest results from its seventh Quality of Life Survey.

The survey is the largest social attitude survey in South Africa. The GCRO is a partnership between Gauteng Provincial Government, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Johannesburg, and organised local government in Gauteng (SALGA-Gauteng).

A key finding from the survey is that the Quality of Life Index, which combines 33 indicators from across the survey to provide an overall multi-dimensional measure of wellbeing, has dropped over two successive surveys, in QoL 6 (2020/21) and again in QoL 7 (2023/24), to its lowest level ever. The Index measures development progress across seven dimensions of health, safety, life satisfaction, socio-economic status, services, government satisfaction and participation.

“The Quality-of-Life survey highlights the importance of partnerships between government and universities,” says Professor Lynn Morris, Chair of the GCRO and Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, at Wits University. “Universities need these kinds of research benchmarks. These are our social engagements, and we need to be using our research and other expertise to solve the problems in our communities.”

The GCRO is a research institute that helps build the knowledge base to make the Gauteng City-Region competitive, spatially integrated, environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive.

The latest survey results also show that poverty rates have improved from their peak during the pandemic but remain above pre-Covid levels. A quarter of households (23%) are living below the ‘lower bound poverty line’, which is an income of R1 058 per person per month in 2023 prices. Under Covid it had spiked to a third (33%) of all households. However, the recovery is partial because the proportion of people in poverty remains higher than during the pre-pandemic survey done in 2017/18 (18%).

Other findings are:

• Well over four-fifths of respondents (85%) said that it was harder for people like them to find work than it would have been five years ago.
• A quarter of respondents said that an adult in their household had skipped a meal in the past year because there was not enough money to pay for food.
• Two thirds of households make use of public health facilities, and satisfaction with public health facilities is at 57% compared to 98% for those using private healthcare services.
• Around 15%, up from 14% and 12% in previous surveys, are at high risk of depression.
• Just over a fifth of households (21%) reported having been victim of crime.
• Over four consecutive surveys there has been a significant increase in the percentage of individuals reporting that they feel very unsafe walking in the areas at night – from 38% (2015/16), to 47% (2017/18), 49% (2020/21) and 57% (2023/24).
• Racialised inequality continues to be exemplified by African and Coloured people with lower income- families having proportionally less access to medical aid, adults and children skipping meals, and have greater difficulty in saving money
• Satisfaction with basic services has declined dramatically over the years. From 2013/14 to 2023/24 we see a drop in satisfaction for water (84% to 75%); sewerage (78% to 61%); rubbish removal (80% to 64%); energy (78% to 42%); local roads (61% to 37%); and streetlights (59% to 29%).

Rashid Seedat, the Executive Director of the GCRO, says: “Despite our hopes, the new data tells us we’re not doing well. The last Quality of Life Survey, QoL 6, conducted in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, showed society to be in deep distress. The pattern has not shifted fundamentally as households in Gauteng remain under severe pressure and face multiple stressors.”

“The reason that development outcomes in the province have been compromised is that Gauteng, like many places in the world, has had to manage a succession of shocks and crises. The Covid-19 pandemic arrived in a society already struggling with low economic growth, acute unemployment levels and weakened governance capacity.”

In these circumstances, it is observed that households cope with adversity in a variety of ways:

• Social protection has been enhanced over the years. 32% of all households stated they received the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, up from 23% during the height of the pandemic.
•  The percentage of respondents saying that someone in the household receives a social grant increased from 30% in 2011 to 50% in 2023/24.
• Even though 85% believe that it is harder to find a job, 54% say that formal employment brings money to the household, compared to 41% in 2011.
• Almost half (48%) of all households in 2023/24 affirmed that children in their household benefit from a school feeding scheme. The proportion benefitting has steadily increased over time from 28% in 2017/18 and 44% in 2020/21.

According to Seedat, “Gauteng households are facing a poly-crisis of poverty and unemployment, disruptions to basic services, insecurity as a result of crime and violence, poor physical and mental health outcomes, difficulties with daily mobility and extreme environmental events. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey found that satisfaction with all spheres of government has been severely affected.”

• Dissatisfaction with all spheres of government increased dramatically from 2009 to 2023/24, from 25% to 66%, 29% to 63% and 39% to 65% for national, provincial and local government respectively.
• 68% of households now say that they do not trust the current leaders of government compared to 54% in 2020/21.
• All but one of the metro and local municipalities have experienced a precipitous decline in satisfaction with an aggregate of just 22%.

GCRO has conducted Quality of Life surveys every two to three years since 2009. The current dataset records the lived experiences of 13 795 of Gauteng’s residents, with respondents randomly sampled in every ward of the province. Data for the survey were collected by a team of dedicated fieldworkers from 28 August 2023 to 16 April 2024. 

Seedat emphasised that it is important to note the timing of when the data were collected. “The finalisation of fieldwork preceded the national and provincial elections at the end of May, and the formation of the Government of National Unity and Government of Provincial Unity in Gauteng,” he says. “So, the results can’t be taken as views on how well the new administrations are doing.”