Factors That Affect The Nonpayment Of Municipal Services In Madibeng, Mamelodi And Soshanguve Townships Of South Africa

The study was conducted in Madibeng, Mamelodi and Soshanguve townships of South Africa in order to assess and evaluate the main reasons for the non-payment of municipal services by members of the community. The study was conducted based on a stratified random sample of size 428 households. Statistical data analyses were performed by using methods such as ordered logistic regression analysis and Bayesian analyses. The results showed that 22% of households in Madibeng, 54% of households in Mamelodi and 78% of households in Soshanguve were willing to pay for municipal services that were provided to them by their local municipalities. Reluctance to pay for municipal services was significantly influenced by employment status, level of formal education and race group. The study was conducted based on a stratified random sample of size 428 households in Madibeng, Mamemlodi and Soshanguve townships. The population sizes of Madibeng (477, 381), Mamemlodi (334, 577) and Soshanguve (403, 162) townships were estimated based on a census conducted by Statistics South Africa (2012) in the year 2011. Stratification was done by township. Data was collected on socioeconomic factors that are known to undermine the quality of municipal service delivery. At each household, data was collected from the head of the household. Data collection was done by using a structured, pre-tested and validated questionnaire of study from each of the 428 households in the three townships. A random sample of size 167 households (39% of the total sample size of study) was drawn from Madibeng. A random sample of size 120 households was drawn from Mamelodi (28% of the total sample size of study). A random sample of size 141 (33% of the total sample size of study) was drawn from Soshanguve. The key aim of study was to identify and quantify key predictors of nonpayment of municipal services. The degree of satisfaction of households on the quality of municipal services provided to them was assessed by using a 5-point ordinal scale. Cross-tab analyses (Hair, Black, Rabin & Anderson, 2010), ordered logistic regression analysis (Kleinbaum, Kupper, Nizam & Rosenberg, 2013) and Bayesian analysis (Browne & Goldstein, 2010) were used for performing data analyses. The statistical package STATA version 15 (STATA Corporation, 2017) was used for data analyses. to 41%, 39% and 27% respectively. The percentages of residents who strongly believed that unpaid fees for municipal services should be written off as a loss at Madibeng, Mamelodi and Soshanguve were equal to 40%, 38% and 26% respectively. The percentages of residents who believed that fees for municipal services should be paid up by the Government at Madibeng, Mamelodi and Soshanguve were equal to 62%, 34% and 19% respectively. The percentages of residents who strongly believed that unpaid fees should be recovered from defaulters by legal means at Madibeng, Mamelodi and Soshanguve were equal to 27%, 39% and 41% respectively. The percentages of residents who strongly believed that there was lack of good governance at Madibeng, Mamelodi and Soshanguve were equal to 48%, 34% and 22% respectively. The study has shown that ratepayers and ordinary residents could easily develop the perception that elected officials and municipal employees are unable to provide them with quality services due to various reasons. These perceptions and assumptions are often perpetrated by lack of awareness campaigns and visibility by municipal officials. Awareness campaigns are quite helpful in addressing the concerns of ratepayers and residents about the quality of service delivery. Adherence to Batho-Pele Principles and adherence to good governance principles is quite helpful for improving the perception of residents, ratepayers and consumers. Bad experience at municipalities often leads to lack of trust and confidence. Quality control mechanisms should be put in place in order to win the trust of ratepayers and residents. defaulters municipal services ratepayers.